


My Duke. My Fool. I love you.

by UnderZeWeather



Series: AU Jam [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Courting Rituals, Courtship, Duke Keith, Galra Keith (Voltron), Galra Shiro (Voltron), M/M, Royal Wedding, court jester Lance, royal au, they are both stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:08:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 43,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26122480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderZeWeather/pseuds/UnderZeWeather
Summary: The great war between the Alteans and the Galra has ended. To solidify the peace between the two species Princess Allura and Prince Lotor are to wed on Altea before returning to Diabazzel for their honeymoon. It's a huge event and everyone is thrilled for this happy event... However, Lotor has brought along his cousin. A younger, brooding Duke who would rather just be at home and hunting in the wilds. Maybe this uptight man needs to lighten up and have a little laugh?
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: AU Jam [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893274
Comments: 10
Kudos: 142





	1. A Fool and a Duke

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in Strawberry and Blueberry Jam under Royal AU. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

For the first time after the ten years war between Dibazzel and Altea, the two monarchs decided to meet and officially declare peace. To solidify the peace the Princess of Altea, Allura, was going to marry Prince Lotor of Diabazzel. Accompanying Prince Lotor was his younger cousin Duke Yurak and the captain of the royal guards, Shiro.

Funnily enough the Prince and Princess were already betrothed to each other before the war had started. This was just a good excuse to officially declare it’s over. Yurak sighed heavily as he drummed his fingers on his knee. He wanted this to be over already.

Shiro gently patted his back. “It’ll be fine. Don’t get so worked up about it. We aren’t enemies anymore.” Yurak still huffed anyway. He didn’t really want to be here, but Lotor had asked him to come along. Some bullshit about building relationships and what not. 

They got to the palace and the royals greeted each other. King Alfor of Altea and King Zarkon of Diabazzel. They shook hands and greeted each other like old friends. Like the war never happened. Zarkon presented his son, Lotor to them. He shook the King’s hand and lamented how they had missed coming to Altea before the war. 

Alfor then presented his daughter, Allura to them. She was very pretty with long, wavy white hair. Her eyes shone like sapphires and the marking on her cheeks were bright pink. She was very pretty in a non-Galran kind of way.

Alfor turned his attention to Yurak and Shiro. “And who might your entourage be?”

Zarkon smiled slightly as he looked over at the other men. “This is my nephew. Duke Yurak of Verpzar. The man with his is the captain of the royal guards, Shiro.”

With introductions out of the way, Alfor brought them to a small sitting room to talk politics and what not. Well, Alfor and Zarkon talked politics. Allura and Lotor were catching up and seemed to be off in their own little world. Yurak wanted to throw himself out the window. But he had to sit there and pretend he was having a good time. He just sat there and glanced over at Shiro, quietly begging for him to help.

Before Shiro could say anything there was a knock at the door and Alfor called them in. Yurak was completely bemused to see an Altean on a unicycle, balancing a broom on his nose, just wheeling himself in. He looked over at Shiro and he was sharing the same look of complete confusion.

“Hey your highness.” Said the man as he continued his little stunt. “So I was thinking that maybe tonight I could do something like this? The Galra are into balancing acts too right?”

Alfor face palmed. “Lance…”

“Or are they more into stand up?” Asked this Lance guy. “I don’t know much about Galran culture, so I could open up with a joke about how I’m not gonna make a joke about them or I could oopsy another war.”

“Lance.”

“Magic? Everyone likes magic. I could saw the Viscountess in half again?” He suggested. “Or if the Princess agrees, maybe her? Then again I could always break out the instruments again? Who doesn’t love a good ballad?”

“Lance!” He said more sternly.

Lance took the broom off his nose and looked up at the King. “Yes?” He then noticed the group already in the room. The man looked around and slowly nodded. “Ah, I see… I have made yet another blunder… Well, goodbye.” The Altean quickly peddled backwards on his unicycle and used the broom to steer himself out of the room.

Once he was gone Allura started laughing. “I told you this was going to happen.” She said. “I told you he would forget when everyone was going to arrive.”

“Is that the same Lance from when we were younger?” Asked Lotor. “Didn’t his family used to take care of the stables?”

“They still do.” Said Allura. “Lance just has a way with words and has this charm about him, so now he is the court jester.”

Zarkon frowned a little. “Well he’s certainly… amusing.”

***

Later that day when Yurak was allowed to explore the castle on his own, he ended up finding the gardens. The Altean gardens were nice. Very pretty. They didn’t have gardens this nice back at Diabazzel. He found a quiet spot and sat down. The spot he chose hid him quite well from the view of anyone that would walk by. He was happy with that. He liked his solitude.

After a few hours an Altean walked into the very quiet section of the garden. It was Lance. Yurak watched curiously as Lance walked around the space and started to do some stretches. Once he was done, he did a one handed cartwheel and finished it by doing the splits. Lance then got up and did a few more flips and tumbles.

It quickly became apparent that this was the place where Lance practiced his routines. Keith wasn’t sure if he should stay still or just wait until Lance was gone. Though it was entertaining to see a preview of what was probably going to be tonight’s entertainment. But his legs were cramping up and he had to move his legs. He ended up bumping some of the shrubs he was sitting near, which caught the Altean’s attention.

“Hello? Anyone there?” He called as he walked towards where Yurak was hiding. Yurak tried to press himself further into the shadows, but Lance quickly found him. “Oh! Didn’t realize we were growing stuff from Diabazzel.”

Yurak glared at him. “Piss off.”

Lance gasped and clutched his chest in an overly dramatic fashion. “You wound me so!” He grinned and held his hand out. “Anyway, the name’s Lance. Royal jester. Also go by, Jester, Fool, Royal Fool, and loverboy. I wasn’t aware Zarkon was bringing anyone other than Lotor and some guards.”

Yurak frowned at him, and reluctantly shook his hand. “Duke Yurak of Verpzar. I’m Lotor’s cousin.”

Lance nodded and gave Yurak a quick once over. “I see, I see. Well, between you and me, I think you dress a lot nicer than Lotor.”

“... Thanks?”

“Yep. Love a man with dark hair.”

“... Right. So how long have you known Allura?”

“Oh, ever since we were kids. I was born a year after her and we kind of became playmates.” Said Lance happily. “I would ask how long you’ve known Lotor, but I have a feeling you might say since birth?”

“Fair enough. That is true.” Said Keith. “So, did you really not know we were already here when you came in and made a fool of yourself?”

Lance shrugged. “Well, yeah. I play the fool, but I am no village idiot. Thought it would be best to bust in and let you all know what kind of a person you’re dealing with. I heard that your people are a little… You aren’t very humorous.”

Yurak rolled his eyes. “Maybe Alteans just don’t know a good joke.”

Lance gasped in mock shock. “Oh! You wound me so! Are all Galra so mean? But seriously, what do Galra find funny? I want to make sure my routine tonight is a hit with you guys along with the royal court.”

Yurak shrugged. “Anything you do is fine.”

“... You are no help.”

“Yurak!” Called Shiro as he rounded a corner. “I thought I heard you. What are you doing out here?”

“Talking to a Fool.” He said.

Lance grinned and nodded. “It’s true. I saw him talking to his own shadow.”

Yurak glared daggers at Lance while Shiro tried and failed to snort back a laugh. “Well, okay then. I’m Shiro.”

“Lance. But you already know that.” Said the Fool. “Maybe you can be more helpful then the Duke of Verzipper.”

“Verpzar.” Corrected Yurak.

“Berpzar.”

“Verpzar.”

“Cantelope.”

“That one wasn’t even close!”

Shiro chuckled. “Galra appreciate a quick wit along with some slapstick.”

“Ah, so you all appreciate a good punchline. Got it.” Said Lance with a grin. “Okay, I can work with that. Thanks for the help.” He looked over at Yurak and performed an exaggerated bow as he walked backwards. “Now I will be seeing you, your tall and weird purpleness. I must go and work on some new material for tonight and I-” Lance tripped backwards over a planter box and fell backwards.

The Galran’s gasped in shock and were about to run over to help him, but the Altean somehow managed to throw his hands backwards over the box and ended up doing a handstand. He then quickly stood back up and dusted himself off. He had a pleased grin on his face.

“Like that?” He asked.

The Galran’s let out a sigh of relief. “Yeah, like that.” Said Shiro. “But are you okay?”

Lance nodded. “Yep. First rule of physical comedy; learn how to fall. Like seriously, I can throw myself down the stairs at the top of a tower and roll all the way down without breaking a bone. I’ll have something together for all you guys. Later.” He happily waved goodbye to the and went on his way.

After a few beats of silence Shiro let out a long, slow whistle. “Well, he is quite a character.”

“Yeah, he is…”

“... You know, I would have expected you to at least punch him for deliberately mispronouncing Verpzar so many times.” 

Yurak shrugged. “I just didn’t feel like starting a new war.”

“How noble of you.” He lightly nudged Yurak’s arm. “Come on. Zarkon is calling for you. He wants to speak with you before dinner.”

Yurak rolled his eyes. “It’s hours away.”

“I know, but do you really want to argue with him?”

Yurak sighed and followed Shiro back into the castle. On the way back Yurak happened to see Lance talking to a young Okari girl. They didn’t seem very amused by Lance’s antics and lightly punched his arm. They lightly hit Lance’s arm and the Altean dramatically fell to the ground and pretended to be dead. Even pulled a flower out of nowhere and laid it on his chest.

His stupid display made Yurak chuckle a little. The Altean was so over dramatic. His laugh drew the attention of Shiro who gave him a look. A look that Yurak did not like very much. It was one the captain of the guard’s had used on him plenty of times.

“Don’t you say anything.”

Shiro raised his hands. “I said nothing.” 

“You were thinking it. Stop it.”

“Stop thinking?”

“Yes.”

“But if I stopped thinking I would be just as smart as a certain Duke I know.”

“... I will stab you in the dick!”


	2. Roast

The dinner feast thing on Altea was kind of interesting. A lot of the food was sweet and more vegetable based than the meat based diet Yurak was accustomed to. It was okay, but He was really craving more meat. He looked around at some of the other plates. The Altean’s were eating half the meat they were. So he couldn’t very well ask for more meat without it being rude.

No one at the table was talking to him. They were much too interested in gossiping and looking at Allura and Lotor. They were the ones getting married after all. Yurak was just there because his cousin, Lotor, asked him to be there.

After what felt like forever the food was finished and everyone was demanding entertainment. As if on cue, Lance walked into the room. He was walking kind of oddly and seemed a little out of breath. He was carrying his unicycle and took a moment to catch his breath.

“E-evening your majesties.” Said said as he cringed. “Members of the court and all others I…” He walked over to one of the tables and pointed at a goblet. “You mind?” They shook their head and Lance quickly drank from it. “Thanks… King Alfor! Oh benevolent king of the Alteans! I beseech thee!”

“What is it this time Lance?” Asked Alfor in an amused tone.

Lance held up the unicycle. “This! I need a better form of transportation! It’s good when I’m traveling down the halls of the castle, but that cobblestone outside?” He cringed and readjusted his pants. “Either give me more stable transportation or give me better padding.”

That joke seemed to land pretty well with the Alteans as some of them laughed or snickered at the jester’s dick joke. Lance grinned and straightened himself up. He was back to walking normally again. 

“But seriously. I’m happy to be back here again.” Said Lance. “Though we might wanna check a few of our esteemed guests. They are turning purple.” That got some more laughs and Lance grinned. “I jest of course. It’s good to have the Galra back around Altean’s without us all trying to turn the other into a pin cushion.”

That got some more laughs and Lance did some over exaggerated bows, almost folding himself in half as he did so. The jokes were mildly witty, but Yurak was more interested in how flexible he was.

Lance grinned at Allura and reached out for her. “Ah, Allura, the beautiful flower of Altea. No longer single, but betrothed to another man… I am going to miss telling people to fuck off with my megaphone every heart day.” He turned and pointed to a bearded man at the far end of the table. “I’m talking to you Lord Yimar. I’m gonna miss telling you that Allura’s not gonna bonk you no matter how much land you own.” The court burst into laughter. “Allura already has huge-” Lance started to make gestures towards his chest before quickly going back to pointing and scolding. “-tracks of land.”

Yurak almost choked on his drink. Lance could get away with that? How the hell could he get away with this without King Alfor ordering his execution? This was amazing. Even Allura was laughing. Hell, Zarkon was cracking a smile.

Lance grinned and did a cartwheel. “But seriously folks, I’m super happy for Allura. I’ve known her since we were babies. Known Lotor a for about… Three years. We obviously met before the war. You seem like an okay guy. But then again Sir Raphelo seemed like a decent enough guy and we all know how that song and dance went.” He made some gestures that looked like he was getting strangled and everyone laughed.

Lance’s routine continued on for about half an hour. He went from doing comedy, where he was insulting every member of the court, to doing some juggling with some fancy looking vases while balancing on his unicycle. When he was done with his act, Lance bowed and curtsied to Alfor and the court in an over exaggerated way.

The Alteans seemed very happy with his performance. While Yurak wasn’t laughing out loud like the Altean’s he did see the humour in what Lance’s routine. Some of the things he said Yurak didn’t get since they were very Altean specific.

Everyone stuck around for a bit longer until everything was officially over. Then Yurak went to his room to relax. Though he was still kind of hungry. He wanted more meat. He could always kind the kitchen and ask if there were any bones left over and suck the marrow out of that?

With his mind made up, Yurak snuck out of his room and down to the kitchens. His Galran sense of smell made it easier for him to find the kitchens. It smelled like baking and sweets and something kind of savoury.

He peeked into the kitchen and saw an olkari girl sitting at a table eating some soup with Lance and a balmeran male. They looked like they were having dinner together or supper. Whatever meal they were eating.

“...” He awkwardly walked in.

The oikari girl was the first to notice him. “Heads up we got royalty.”

The others looked over and Lance grinned at him. “Hey! It’s the Duke! Hunk, Pidge, this is Yurak. Prince Lotor’s cousin.”

The balmeran grinned at him. “Nice to meet you. I’m Hunk. Head chef of these kitchens. Are you hungry or did you get a little lost?”

Yurak shrugged a little, suddenly nervous. “Kind of hungry… The dinner was nice and everything but… um… Not nearly enough meat.”

The balmaran seemed a little surprised. “Oh, did I not put enough meat on your plates? I read that Galra eat more meat than Altean’s so I tried adding more… Guess it wasn’t nearly enough?”

Yurak shook his head. “Sorry. We don’t eat that many vegetables.”

“Fair enough. I’ll get you something. Go and sit down.” He gestured to the table and went about getting Yurak some more meat.

The olkari girl, Pidge, looked up at him and nodded. “Sup? I’m the castle’s technician.”

“Hi… So what are you eating?”

Pidge looked down at their food. “Vegetable soup. Olkari are vegetarians.”

“Fair enough.”

Lance started to drum his hands on the table. “Did you like my act?” He asked. “You guys didn’t really laugh that much and I was worried you didn’t like it.”

Yurak shrugged. “It was fine. You just used references we don’t understand about Altean culture.”

“Ah, fair enough.” Lance frowned a little as he seemed to be rethinking his act.

Hunk put a plate of cut meat in front of Keith and smiled a little. “Here. Sorry, it’s just cold cuts at the moment. I was going to use most of it for breakfast sandwiches and stuff tomorrow.”

“No this is good. Thank you.” Keith happily ate it. Felt so nice to have a belly full of meat again. He looked over at Lance and pointed at him. “So, do you normally insult the court like that?”

“Yeah. It’s my job.” Said Lance.

Pidge snickered. “Yeah. On Altea the royal jester is kind of immune from treason and speaking badly about the royal family. Well, there are very specific rules he has to follow for it not to be treason. So Lance just roasts the fuck out of everyone. It’s awesome.”

“He’d be killed back on Diabazzel for doing that.” Said Keith. “We don’t really have jesters on my planet. We have magicials as our entertainment in court.”

“Really?” Asked Lance. “You should have said something. I would have done more magic… By the way you have something in your ear.”

Yurak frowned and lightly rubbed his ear. It wasn’t uncommon for him to get a bit of fluff or fuzz in his ears. “Did I get it?”

“Other ear.”

“...” Yurak rubbed his other ear. “Did I get it?”

Lance rolled his eyes and leaned over the table. “Let me get it…” He lightly touched Yurak’s ear and pulled back. In his hand was a flower. Which just confused the heck out of Yurak. It wasn’t a small one either. It was the size of Lance’s hand. The Altean just shook his head. “Honestly, you really should look after yourself more carefully.” He said as he quickly rolled and balled up the flower in his hands. He then held his hands up to his lips and blew several bubbles.

Yurak couldn’t help but watch in shock. “Altean magic…” He muttered.

Hunk chuckled and nudged Lance. “Don’t blow bubbles in here man. You know how I feel about that.”

“Sorry man. Couldn’t help it.”

Pidge loudly slurped down the last of her soup and looked over at Yurak. “So, how long are you staying here?”

Yurak shrugged. “Maybe a day or two after Lotor and Allura are married? I’m not sure. I’ll be happy to go back home soon. I honestly prefer living at home, no offence.”

“Everyone prefers their own home.” Said Pidge. “ So no offence taken.”

Yurak nodded a little. “Okay.” 

He continued to eat while the trio kept talking. They all seemed to be excited about the wedding and were talking about all the food that there would have to be along with what technology they needed to properly broadcast the event to all Altean’s. It was interesting to listen to. Then he started yawning. Now Galran’s didn’t do a small little sleepy yawn. When they really opened their mouths wide, showing off all their fangs.

“Someone’s sleepy.” Teased Lance. “Come on, I’ll lead you back to your room.”

“And how do you know where my room is?”

“I was nosey and poked around when things were getting set up.” Said Lance. Come on, your room is on my way back to my room anyway.”

Yurak wasn’t very happy about this but followed Lance back towards his room. The castle walls seemed to emit some strange and unnatural glow. It was weird. He didn’t really like it.

When they got to his room Lance tapped on the door. “And here we are. Your stop.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” The Altean smiled brightly at him. “If you ever want to hang out with me while you’re here I’m usually around the gardens or hanging around with Hunk and Pidge.”

“Um, thanks? I’m usually around Shiro…”

“Yeah, he’s pretty hot.”

Yurak’s hair stood on end as he felt his face heating up in embarrassment. “Y-you think Shiro is hot? Weren’t Galra your enemy like a year ago?”

Lance put his hand on his shoulder. “Honey, I may be a fool, but blind is not one of them. Is he seeing anyone?”

“H-he’s my littermate!” Squeaked Yurak. “Practically my brother! He’s already courting someone!”

“Oh… So are you single?”

Yurak’s hair puffed up even more. “What? So am I some second prize in the eyes of a fool?”

“Second for a fool but first for a jester.” Said Lance with a wink. “But seriously, if Shiro is your brother how come he isn’t a Duke?”

Yurak rolled his eyes and tried to flatten the fur out on his face and ears. “Shiro isn’t my littermate by blood. He looked after me while my mother was doing mandatory military service.”

Lance looked surprised. “Oh? You have mandatory military service on your planet?”

“Of course.” Said Yurak. “You don’t?”

“Nope. Well, goodnight.” He playfully patted Yurak’s head. “Nighty night purple fluffer. Get some beauty sleep. You need it.”

Yurak’s fur puffed up again as he tried to swat away Lance’s hand. “Stop that!”

Lance winked and stuck his tongue out. “Nah, You’re too much fun. Later Yurak. See you tomorrow.” The jester happily walked down the hallway leaving Yurak standing at his door.

“...” Yurak groaned and flattened his fur down some more. “I know you’re there Shiro.”

The soldier stepped out of the shadows and chuckled. “So, the jester thinks I’m hot?”

“Apparently so… He’s so embarrassing...”

Shiro shrugged and helped to flatten out the hair on Yurak’s ears. “Well, he is a strange man… He was totally flirting with you.”

“Was not!”

“Was to.”

“Nope. I’m going to bed. Night.” Yurak quickly ran into his room and flopped back on the bed. His fur immediately puffed back up.


	3. Library

Writing jokes that made everyone laugh was hard. Lance thought it might be easier if he just threw himself down some stairs to get a laugh out of the Galra. Sure he got them to some but they didn’t laugh. It annoyed him. Especially the Duke. Duke Yurak.

Lance couldn’t deny it, Yurak was very cute. His ears were adorably fluffy and he had this permanent scowl on his face. Lance would have loved to squeeze his face and play with his ears. Though he was pretty sure if he did then they would stab him. It was annoying.

He sighed loudly and did a few handstands. From his view of the world upside down he happened to spy Yurak and Shiro. They were walking through the garden and Lance’s eyes lit up. He happily walked over to them, still doing a handstand.

“Hey guys.” He said in a chipper tone. “What’s up?”

The Galran’s seemed a little confused as to where they were meant to look at to talk to him. Shiro kind of tilted his head to the side. “Um, we’re good? We heard that you have a rather extensive library and heard it was in the west wing of the castle.”

“Ah, cool!” Lance quickly flipped back over and dusted his hands clean of dirt. “I can show you where it is. I could take some time to do some studying.”

“You study?” Questioned Yurak.

Lance gasped in fake shock. “Excuse me! I play ten instruments!” He quickly started listing them off; “Hydrolauphone, glass harmonica, double contrabass flute, pyrophone, great stalacpipe organ, ocarina, cello horn, fluba, pikasso guitar, and the nellophone. I need to know a plethora of music theory!”

“... Sorry I asked.” Muttered the Duke.

Lance pouted and crossed his arms. “You better be… Anyway, library?”

Shiro nodded. “Sure. We’d appreciate it.” 

Lance smiled and happily showed them the way. “So, anything you guys are particularly interested in? Wildlife? Plants? Fiction? Religion?”

“We’re interested in what an Altean wedding entails.” Said Shiro. “Zarkon and Lotor agreed to do a full Altean wedding as long as Allura is willing to spend a year on Diabazzel.”

“Ah cool.” Lance was surprised when he first heard that the wedding was going to be a traditional Altean one, but it did make sense in some way. If the Galra really did want to make peace the Altean people would expect them to conform to their traditions. It was sad but true. Lance took them to the library and grabbed them some books for them to look at.

Yurak looked through one of the books and his big cat ears seemed to go through a whole range of emotions. Perked up, folded back, flat out to the side, one up and one down, and just wiggling around in general. Lance wanted to touch those fluffy things.

Shiro picked up one of the books and read over a paragraph. “Huh… Excuse me, what is this?” He showed Lance a picture of a normal Altean wedding reception. He pointed to a person standing in the middle of a ring of curved tubes.

“That’s a nellophone.” Said Lance. “Traditional Altean instrument. It’s pretty huge. We only pull this out for traditional ceremonies and stuff. They do sound a little weird, but you guys might like it.”

“Huh… It looks… Big?”

“It is very big.” Said Lance calmly. “I prefer the hydrolauphone though.”

“Will you be playing that sometime for us?” Asked Shiro.

Lance shrugged. “Probably not. I need a fair bit of water for it to work and it’s usually only performed outside in an open area.”

“Ah, okay. Thank you for the help.”

“No problem. Let me know if you guys need anymore help.” He waved at the duo, taking one last look at Yurak’s wiggling ears before he went to the music section. Yurak was very cute and he kind of wanted to see if he could scratch that and make him purr. 

He sighed a little and went about finding an advanced music book of sheet music. The only instrument he had on him was his ocarina. Seeing as how he was in the library he didn’t dare play it, but he did practice the fingering. Allura had asked him to play an old, traditional wedding song at the reception, so he was doing his best for her. The song was Chariots of fire. Very complicated and difficult to get the fingering right.

Around the time he started to get cramps in his fingers he noticed that Yurak was watching him from the other side of the aisle. He waved at him and Yurak walked over to him.

“Do you need something?” Asked Lance as he cracked his knuckles.

“Do you have more books?”

“Oh sure.” Lance got up and went to find Yurak more books. “So… You excited for the wedding?”

“Honestly? Not really.”

Lance was surprised to hear about it. “Huh? Why?” This was the first he’d heard about the Galra not wanting Allura and Lotor to get married.

“I don’t like crowds.” Muttered Yurak. “Galra weddings are… They are smaller. More intimate. Only very, very close family and friends are allowed to be there… Royal weddings are broadcast but most people don’t actually watch the ceremony. They just watch the unveiling where the couple are presented to the extended family and friends, or in this case, the people of Dibazzel.”

“... Huh, neat.”

“Yeah… What were you doing?”

“Before?”

“Yeah.”

Lance shrugged as he looked over the books on the shelf. “If I ever get married I’d like to have a big wedding.”

“Yeah, you seem like a showy kind of guy.” Said Yurak. “Always wanting to be the center of attention?”

“What can I say? I’m an attention whore… And I want everyone to have fun.” He said. “Like, I want everyone and I mean everyone to be happy… I like it when people smile and laugh and just… The war was really shitty and everyone was really depressed. I became the court jester three years into the war.” 

“Oh… That probably wasn’t fun?”

Lance laughed a little as he gathered some books. “Yeah. You have any idea how hard it is to lift everyone’s spirits and make them think everything’s going to be okay after a few thousand soldiers get blown up?”

“... I can imagine it’s difficult.”

“It was…” Lance sighed and passed the books over to Keith. “Anyway, weddings are meant to be huge celebrations to make people happy. So, be happy for Lotor and Allura. She’s always had a thing for him and was really upset when this all started.”

“Honestly? Lotor was the same… Took way too long to convince Zarkon this was a bad idea.” Said Yurak calmly.

“Yeah… So like, you married yet?”

Yurak’s ears shot up into the air in shock as the light fuzz on his face puffed up. “Huh?”

“Is there a Duchess of Viperzar waiting for you back home?”

“Verpzar.” Corrected the Duke. “And no… There is no Dutchess. I’m not interested in courting anyone right now.”

“Aw, that’s a shame.” Said Lance. “If you ask me you’re quite a catch.”

Confusing was written all over the poor man’s face. “A catch?” 

Lance couldn’t help but grin. This was going to be good. “Yep. A catch. A total snack.”

“... What?”

“Oh no, don’t tell me you’re a himbo too?”

“A what?”

“Hmm, but can twink’s still be considered a himbo? Or is that more of a thwunk and hunk thing?”

“...” Yurak made a very confused sound. “Lance, what the hell are you talking about?”

Lance smirked and lightly booped Yurak’s nose. He got a small thrill out of it when he saw Yurak shook his head and wrinkled his nose. “Never you mind. Now if you excuse me, I gotta go and practice my music. Later Yurak.” He blew him a kiss and happily skipped out of the library. Yurak was too cute not to flirt with.

***

Yurak slowly walked back to the table where Shiro was sitting. He sat down as calmly as possible, carefully arranged the books, took a deep breath, and slammed his face down as hard as he could into the table’s surface. It made several book stacks on the table jump or fall over.

“Are you okay?” Asked Shiro, hardly sparing the distressed Duke a glance.

“Lance is infuriating.” He muttered. “I don’t know what he wants half the time… Shiro, he asked me if I was courting anyone, of if there was a Duchess waiting for me… Then he called me a snack. Shiro, is this flirting? Like, Altean flirting?”

“In my experience, no.”

Yurak frowned at him. “What do you mean by your experience?”

“... Never you mind.”

“Shiro, are you trying to court an Altean?”

The older man shrugged. “He’s more like a pen pal. Remember how I told you about that Altean soldier I ended up getting marooned with on that asteroid?”

“Adam, right?”

“Yep. Well, we kept in touch even during the war. In secret of course.” Said Shiro calmly. “Due to his status he’s going to be present at the wedding. I think he has been flirting with me.”

“But you don’t know?”

“... Oh.” Suddenly Shiro looked worried. “Oh no… What if I’ve been reading the situation wrong? What if he...? Why do you do this to me Yurak?”

“If I have to suffer this weird ass Altean crap you have to suffer too.”


	4. Street Food

Yurak watched the Alteans quickly moving around the main courtyard from the safety of his balcony. In two more days Princess Allura and Prince Lotor would be married. He was watching in fascination as some Alteans were putting together some weird looking pipe thing on a small platform. He was pretty sure he saw Lance down there helping them set it up.

“What are you looking at?” Asked Shiro. 

Yurak pointed down. “Just all of this… This seems like so much, and this is the reception. It’s very…”

“Altean?”

“Yes. That.” Yurak watched as a pipe almost fell on top of Lance, but was quickly grabbed by a few other people. “... It’s so strange. I’m not sure I would ever be able to do something like that…”

“I didn’t think you were interested in getting a mate?”

“I’m not, but if I did the ceremony would not be this. It would be a Galra wedding.”

“Then marry a Galra?”

Yurak felt his fur puff up. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to marry anyone other than a Galra!”

“Sure…” He walked over to Yurak and looked out the window and down at everything. “Yeah, okay. This does seem a little much. Why are there so many tables?”

“I’m guessing they are for all the royalty and their extended family?” Suggested Yurak. “... This is boring. I wanna go for a walk.”

“Again?”

“No, outside the castle. Out in the town and stuff.” Said Yurak. “I can’t stand being here! I wanna go and explore something! I wanna see something new!”

Shiro chuckled and grinned. “You really can’t sit still for too long, can you?”

“Nope.”

“Zarkon might not want you to leave the castle.” He warned.

“Well Zarkon can suck it. He’s not my dad.” Said Yurak. He took off his overly fancy royal coat and tossed it onto his bed before storming out. “I’m going to climb the wall.”

“Please don’t climb the wall!” Called Shiro.

Yurak didn’t care. He was going to climb the wall. He quickly snuck down to the main courtyard and looked around to see if he could find a way to escape in all the chaos. He was about to make a daring dash towards some boxes stacked near a wall by the vines, when Pidge poked him in the side. Yurak yelped in shock and jumped high enough to almost grab the doorframe.

Pidge smirked at him. “High strung much?”

“Don’t do that!” He snapped. “What are you doing?”

Pidge raised their eyebrow. “What am I doing? What are you doing? You look like you were going to do something suspicious.”

“... I was seeing how chaotic it was out there.” Muttered Yurak. “It’s chaos out there.”

Pidge looked outside and shrugged. “Eh, it’s pretty crazy. Not every day you see two royals getting hitched. Just follow me.”

She gestured for Yurak to follow him and Yurak didn’t really know what excuse to make to get out of this situation, so he reluctantly followed them. They walked over to Lance who had now set up his weird pipe thing. He was standing in the middle of it looking very proud of himself.

“Hey guys. What’s up?” He called.

“Nothing much.” Said Pidge. “You tuning up the nellophone?”

“Yep.” Lance quickly tapped a few pedals with his feet, causing large metal lids to quickly slam shut on the tubes. This caused them to reverberate and make strange notes. Yurak’s ears quickly went flat against his head. He did not like the sound of this instrument one bit. Lance on the other hand looked very pleased with himself. “Pretty cool right? Bet you don’t have this on Diabazzel.”

“I’d fucking hope not.” Muttered Yurak. “Sounds horrible. Like two wraverbeasts fucking.”

Pidge snorted back a laugh while Lance rolled his eyes. “Well Galra don’t know good music. The nellophone-”

“Sounds like trash.” Finished Keith.

Lance gasped and slowly crumbled to the ground and pretended to sob. “How could you? So mean to me and the traditions of my planet…”

Pidge rolled her eyes and poked him. “Get the fuck up. You just needed to set this shit up today, right?”

Lance quickly sat up, completely back to normal. “Yep. Why?”

“Can you run down to town and get me some 2.2mm copper wire?”

“Yeah sure.” He jumped off the platform and grinned. “2.2mm?”

“Yep. As much as 35 credits can get you.”

He shot her finger guns and grinned. “You got it Pidge. I’ll be back before the sun sets.”

“You better fucking be!” Snapped Pidge. “It’s the fucking morning! You better not go down there and just fuck around all day again!”

“I swear I won’t!” Lance looked over at Yurak and grinned. “Want to come with me? Like, if you don’t want to that’s cool and all. Just thought I’d offer.”

“Sure.” Said Yurak as he tried to sound indifferent to the whole situation. “Might as well see how your royals treat your people.”

“Awesome!” Lance spun on his heel and bowed, gesturing towards the main gate. “After you my Duke.”

Yurak rolled his eyes and followed Lance down to the town surrounding the castle. In all honesty it wasn’t too different from the villages and towns on Diabazzel. Maybe a few less open markets with live food, but considering they weren’t big on eating meat here, he couldn’t blame them.

As they walked, Yurak noticed that a lot of the local Alteans seemed to be keeping their distance from him. He was unsure if this was because he was a Galra, or if people mistook him for Lotor. He assumed no one really knew what the Glara Prince looked like or that he himself was coming.

Lance paid no mind as he happily walked along, smiling and waving at a few people while he walked to whatever shop that he needed to go to for Pidge. They walked into a small electronic’s store and Lance instantly found the wire, quickly buying it from the woman at the counter.

“Are you buying this for that nice Olkari girl?” Asked the woman.

Lance chuckled. “Ah, you caught me. Pidge needs it for something and they are too busy with the wedding plans to get it. So here I am. The humble fool and the man of Galran nobility.”

The woman looked over at Yurak and nodded. “Hello sir. Are you perchance the Prince?”

“No.” Said Yurak quickly. “I am his cousin. Duke Yurak of Verpzar. Lance decided to show me around your town. It’s very nice. Familiar to what life is like on Diabazeel.”

“That’s nice dear. Now off you go dearies. I wouldn’t want to keep you two here all day.”

“Will do.” Said Lance. He hooked his arm with Yurak’s and happily led him outside. Yurak’s fur puffed up again as he was getting dragged along. This felt way too intimate but he wasn’t well versed enough in Altean culture to push him away or reject him. “So what do you think?”

“Huh?”

Lance chuckled and grinned. “I asked if you wanted to get something to eat. There is a nice bakery over the other side of the courtyard. They do some really nice meat and vegetable puff pastry stuff. You guys eat a lot of meat right? You might like it.”

“Oh sure? Sounds… nice? There aren’t too many vegetables are there?”

“Nope. It’s mostly a meat dish that’s blended with mushrooms and some other roots.”

“Sounds nice.”

Lance grinned. “Yeah. Wanna come with me or just wait by the fountain?”

Yurak shrugged. “I’ll just wait by the fountain.”

“Awesome. I’ll be back in a second.” Lance happily led Yurak to the fountain and waited and told him to wait while he ran off to a bakery.

Yurak looked around and awkwardly alternated between twiddling his thumbs and running his claws through his hair and ears, trying very hard to flatten out his puffed up fur again. If this kept happening Yurak was going to get waxed. He was fine being all weird and fleshy for a few movements if it meant he’d stop puffing up. He needed a brush.

After a few doboshes Lance walked over to him with something warm wrapped in a paper bag. “Here.” He said as he passed it over to him. “It’s a little flaky and the pastry is kind of sweet.”

Yurak nodded and cautiously sniffed it before he licked it. His tongue was instantly coated in a light layer of flaky, slightly sweet pastry. He quickly pulled his head back and shook his head in confusion. He didn’t like that.

Lance chuckled a little and grinned. “Not used to it huh?”

“Weird… You like this pastry?”

“Yep.” Lance ripped some of the pastry off and let the hot steam billow out. “Just be careful. These are fresh out of the oven. It’s a common Altean street food.”

Yurak nodded and copied him in pulling the pastry open. It was some odd kind of vegetable and meat paste. He sniffed it a few times and found that he liked the aroma. “Common street food?”

“Yeah. Probably not something a man of your standing is used to, but hey time to experience new things.” The Altean happily ate his food.

Yurak very carefully nibbled on the food. It was pretty good. The pastry was a little too sweet, but he liked it. “So this is poor person food?”

“If anything it’s the fancy poor person food.” Said Lance. “It normally isn’t made with puff pastry, but a thicker crust that doesn’t flake. It’s name translates to Farmers pocket because farmers would take these out to the fields in the morning and eat it at lunch.”

“Huh… Interesting.”

Lance grinned. “Yep. Hunk makes the best ones though. Like, he makes the super rich version of our common food. That just means he makes it half the size, with a lighter pastry, and the expensive cuts of meat and vegetables. The jerks in the courtroom love to nibble on them like finger food.”

“... I actually like street food.” Said Yurak.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Like, I do have people that make breakfast and dinner, but I’m usually out of the estate most of the day so I just end up either making my own food or buying food from street vendors.”

“... What’s the most popular street food on your planet?”

Yurak thought for a moment. “Hmm, in Verpzar the most popular is boiled doro feet.”

“Feet?” Asked Lance in shock. “Feet?”

Yurank nodded. “Yeah. It’s poultry. We try to use every part of an animal when we kill it. Doro feet are boiled in a thick syrup of spices and juices for two quintants and are then rolled in spices and sold in bunches of ten.”

Lance almost looked horrified. “Seriously? But isn’t it… The bones?”

“The boiling turns the bones to jelly and they absorb the flavours of the syrup.” Said Yurak. “... Now I want doro feet…”

“That is… Interesting…” Lance still looked pretty horrified.

Yurak just shrugged and continued to eat his food. Altean food was odd, but it wasn’t unpleasant. He had to admit he would have prefered it if the flavour was a little more gamey, but not everyone had the refined pallet like Galra do.

When they had finished eating they brushed the flakey pastry off his shirt and continued to walk around the town. Yurak noticed that the Altean’s were kind of vain. They had way too many clothing stores and places to get their hair done. It was freaking weird.

But he did enjoy walking around with Lance. It was kind of nice listening to the fool go on and on about the history of Altea and all the interesting little historical tidbits that only a true local would know. He liked it.

The giant clock in the middle of the town started to chime and Lance jumped a little in shock. “Oh! Is that the time? We better get back to the castle! Pidge is gonna have my head if I don’t get back with her wire soon!”

“Probably.” 

The two of them quickly headed back to the castle, slowing back down when they got to the path that led to the castle. Lance groaned and stretched, cracking and popping his joints. Yurak’s ear twitched and cracked his knuckles in return.

Lance seemed surprised, but he chuckled. “Thanks for coming out with me. I had fun.”

“I had fun too… Though Zarkon might kick my ass for leaving the castle.”

“... Tell him I kidnapped you?” Suggested Lance. “Maybe say I used my amazing charm and powers of persuasion to drag you out here with me?”

Yurak rolled his eyes. “Sure. Let’s go with that.”

“Was that sarcasm?”

“Perhaps.”

Lance pouted. “Well, at least you had fun.”

“Yeah, I guess I did.” He smiled a little. “Thanks for showing me around. If you ever happen to find yourself on Diabazzel and you happen to be in Verpzar, I’ll return the favour.”

Lance smiled brightly at him. “Really? Awesome! Next time I get a vacation day I’m staying at your place. Get a room ready for me, Fuzzy face.”

“... Why must you make fun of my appearance?”

“Aw, I’m not making fun. I just think you’re cute.”

Yurak’s ears shot up in shock. “You think I’m cute?”

Lance looked just as surprised as Yurak did. Suddenly he gasped. “Do you hear that? It sounds like Pidge! She’s angry and calling for me! She really needs this wire! Later!” He quickly ran back into the castle and left Yurak feeling very confused. He reached up and lightly ran his claws over his ear. Lance thought he was cute? Yurak’s fur puffed up again.


	5. Wedding bells

The wedding was beautiful and went off without a hitch. Yurak had to admit that it was beautiful. Allura’s wedding dress was beautiful and looked like it was made from a million tiny white gemstones and white silk. There were so many gasps and awes at how stunning it was. Lotor looked good too. He wore a dark purple and red suit with traditional Galran accents and flairs.

Yurak stood to the side and waited around as the Altean religious guy did the whole wedding thing. They were talking about love and commitment and all that mushy stuff. Yurak wasn’t very into it and was spacing out. He looked around at all the happy Alteans just tearing up and crying at their Princess being married off.

He happened to spot Lance in the crowd with Pidge and Hunk. They were all crying. Especially Lance. He was practically sobbing. It was amazing how much he was blubbering. He didn’t think he had ever seen someone crying so much before in his life. 

Suddenly everyone was cheering and clapping and Yurak quickly looked around to see that Allura and Lotor were now officially married. He quickly clapped along with everyone as the happy couple walked down the aisle. 

Unsure of what to do he looked over at Zarkon to see what his uncle was doing. He was talking to Alfor, so the Duke just had to stand around and feel awkward. Eventually he was able to leave when Zarkon did and the two of them headed to the reception and took their seats. It would be a few minutes before the newlyweds would join them so Yurak just ended up sitting in his chair and sighing.

He was happy for Lotor and Allura, but so many people. So much talking and laughing and it just… It made him groan internally and externally. This earned him a rough nudge from Zarkon.

“What are you doing? Be happy for Lotor.”

“I am happy for him…” Muttered Yurak. “I just don’t like crowds.”

“... Keep acting bitter and I’m going to arrange your marriage with an Altean too.” He quickly looked around ange gestured to some of the women of the Altean court. “One of them.” 

“...” Yurak looked at their uncle with a blank expression. “I’m gay.”

Zarkon frowned a little and turned to Alfor. “Hey, Alfor. Question for you.”

“Yes?” Asked the Altean king. “Do you allow same sex marriage on your planet?”

Alfor nodded. “Yes. Why?”

Zarkon looked back at Yurak. “The threat still stands.”

Yurak huffed and his ears pinned back against his head. He decided it would be best to just sit around, drink some alcohol, eat food, and slip away before he got forced to dance with anyone. He was pretty sure that Zarkon would make him dance with someone. Even if it’s just to keep up appearances. He didn’t want that.

Speeches were given when everyone was settled in. Alfor gave some heartfelt speech about both Alteans and Galrans coming together and how Allura and Lotor had been in love for years before and how this was meant to be. That the both of them were a symbol of peace. Zarkon’s speech was pretty much the same but he leaned a little more to looking towards the future.

Then it was Yurak’s turn. He wanted to throw himself into the sun. He cleared his throat. “S-so… I have known Lotor pretty much my whole life. Makes sense since I am his younger cousin… I could go on about how when we grew up he stumbled in sword fighting, how he didn’t manage to have a successful hunt until he was well into his teenage years, but that is arbitrary at this point. It has been clear to me that Lotor and Allura were meant to be… And I couldn’t be happier for you two. Cheers to the happy couple.”

He raised his glass and so did everyone else. After that the maid of honour gave her speech and everyone started to eat. As they ate music started to play. Yurak’s ears flattened against his head when he heard the nellophone playing. He looked over and saw Lance playing that weird pipe instrument. He still didn’t like the instrument that much and the look of discomfort on Zarkon, Lotor, and Shiro’s face confirmed to Yurak that Galra didn’t like it.

Soon Lotor and Allura had their first dance. It was beautiful and they both looked like the spitting image of a young couple in love. After the first dance everyone else was free to come onto the dance floor and mingle with each other. Yurak took this as the perfect time to take a drink and quickly slip away into the castle.

He was glad that no one was really comfortable talking to him yet. He slipped into the castle and down a hallway. As he walked his ears perked up when he heard Shiro talking to someone in one of the side rooms.

“-missed you.” Said Shiro quietly.

“I know you did.” Said another man’s voice. “You haven’t stopped saying that since we’ve been alone.”

“Well it’s true… You… Are you seeing anyone?”

“Right now? In a romantic sense? No. But there is someone I am interested in.” 

“Oh… Um… Well good luck with that…” Said Shiro. “I hope you two can find happiness together…”

“... Takashi, you are still a big, dumb, purple idiot. Come here.” There was quiet for a moment before Yurak heard a thump. He looked into the room and saw Shiro pressing an Altean man up against a wall. The Altran seemed responsive and was trying to pull him closer.

“...” Yurak cleared his throat and both quickly looked over at him and jumped away. Shiro’s fur was puffed up in embarrassment and the Altean was blushing bright red. “So… Is this that Adam guy you were talking about?”

Shiro nodded a little and tried to flatten the fur on his face. “Y-yeah… Adam, this is my littermate. Yurak. Yurak this is Adam… We um… We technically both fought in the war.”

“Opposite sides, clearly.” Clarified Adam. “... It um… It’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise… Maybe you should find a bedroom for that or a room further away?” Suggested Yurak.

“Yes. We’ll do that…” Said Shiro quickly. The two quickly left the room and went down the hall.

Yurak chuckled and grinned. Shiro was an idiot sometimes. But he was glad that Shiro was probably going to get laid. He deserved it. Yurak decided to hide in the room for a little bit because it was quiet but close enough to the reception that he could go back every once in a while so people would say he was there.

The doors opened up and Lance walked in, looking a little tired. “Oh hey. Didn’t think you ran off here.” He flopped onto a chair and sighed. “I can’t believe Allura’s really married… It feels like only yesterday we were playing in the gardens and now… Now we are adults… Getting married… Nice speech by the way. Very classy.”

Yurak shrugged. “I didn’t really know what else to say. Zarkon and Alfor were all about the whole unity of our people and what not. I’m just happy that he is happy.”

Lance nodded a little and smiled at him. “Yeah. I’d probably say the same thing if Allura let me say a speech. Oh well, I am just a fool. I play the music and tumble around. Food was good though.”

“Yeah. Hunk gave us more meat.”

“He’s good like that.” The Altean smiled up at him with those pretty blue eyes. It made Yurak’s fur puff up a little. 

“What?”

“I think you have something behind your ear.”

“What?” Yurak frowned and started to rake his claws over his ears. He didn’t think he had anything behind his ears. Zarkon would get so pissed off at him if he had a leaf behind his ear and it showed up in photos. “Did I get it?”

“Almost. Let me.” Lance stood up and reached out. He touched Yurak’s ear and Yurak inwardly cringed when his ear started twitching. “Got it!” Lance moved back and he was holding a large bottle of alcohol. “And there’s something behind your other ear…” He reached up and pulled two tall thin glasses out from behind his other ear. “Want a glass?”

Yurak frowned and touched his ears. “... I do not like how you do that.”

Lance laughed and happily poured them both a glass of the odd bubbly purple liquid. He offered one to Yurak. “I thought you guys liked magic?”

“...” Yurak took the cup and sniffed it. It was fruity. “So, why aren’t you out there with everyone else?” 

Lance shrugged and sat back down. “Allura’s too busy off doing her own thing with Lotor. Hunk’s organising the kitchen, and Pidge is somewhere… I have no idea where they are but they are making all the lighting and stuff all fancy. I already played the song Allura wanted. So I’m all good now. Time for a short break.”

Yurak nodded a little and sat on a chair opposite him. “So you’re going to sit here and drink with me?”

“Yep. Unless you want to drink alone?”

“... I wouldn’t mind some company…”

Lance grinned and held up his glass. “I propose a toast.”

Yurak raised an eyebrow and copied his action. “A toast?”

“Yep. A toast to the newlyweds?” Suggested Lance. “A toast to our people getting along? Friendship? Take your pick. It’s just fun to toast.”

“A toast for toasting’s sake?”

Lance grinned. “A toast for toasting.” 

They clinked their glasses together and drank. It was kind of sweet and bubbly. Yurak liked it. The alcohol back on Diabazeel was stronger and much more bitter. Depending on the region it could be pretty thick too. Like honey or syrup.

Lance sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Man… I wish I was able to have a wedding like this. It’s so big and fancy…”

“Weddings aren’t meant to be big and fancy.” Said Yurak calmly. “Weddings are meant to be small and intimate. Meant to make you and your partner feel loved and special, You don’t have to do something this crazy… I’d honestly hate having a wedding like this. I can hardly get through this reception.”

Lance shrugged. “Well I guess we have different ideas about weddings… You have anyone you’re interested in?”

“I already told you I wasn’t interested in courting anyone right now.” Said Yurak. He sighed and closed his eyes. “Zarkon threatened to marry me off.”

“Oh no. Can he do that?”

“Yes. But I think he was joking… Maybe.” Muttered Yurak. “His sense of humor is relatively dry… He said he’d make me marry an Altean.”

“... What’s so bad about Alteans?”

“Nothing. They will just want a wedding like this.” Said Yurak. “I could marry an Altean if I liked them… That’s kind of the best I can hope for… That we end up getting along…”

Lance frowned. “What do you mean?”

Yurak shrugged. “I’m technically royalty. When you’re royalty you aren’t a person. You’re a powerpiece. You’re important for making political power. Everything you do is to make the people in power stay in power.” He sighed. “If I don’t find someone to marry soon Zarkon will probably organise something…” His ears drooped. “But that’s life as a royal for you.”

“... Do you not want to get married?”

“It isn’t really my call.” Said Yurak. “I’m part of Galran royalty. It’s expected… At least Lotor and Allura really liked each other...”

“...”

Yurak shrugged a little and drank his own drink. “So, are you interested in anyone? You talk about getting married a lot. You trying to court a young woman?”

Lance shrugged and poured more alcohol for them both. “Not really. I mean, I like some people and all the ladies love loverboy Lance. Lots of guys too.”

“But no one you really want to be with?”

The Altean seemed to think for a while. “... No. Not right now… Been too busy worrying about Allura having the perfect wedding and all that. You know?”

“Yeah… This has been pretty hectic.” Yurak finished his drink and frowned a little. “Do you know an Altean named Adam?”

Lance frowned as he thought. “Huh… I have heard of him. A soldier? Probably got a medal at some point. Why?”

“That guy and Shiro are probably going to fuck.”

Lance almost choked to death on his drink. “What?!”

Yurak shrugged. “I walked in on them making out like younglings. They are going to find somewhere quiet and fuck.”

“... Oh wow…”

“Yeah.” Yurak sighed a little and stood up, stretching. “Well, I better get back out there and schmooze around a bit before Zarkon starts questioning where I am.”

“Y-yeah… and I better get out there and entertain my adoring public.” Lance quickly finished off his drink and looked at the bottle. “... You want this?” Yurak shrugged and took it from the Altean, quickly chugging the rest of the bottle. Lance’s jaw dropped. “Are you okay?”

Yurak nodded and put the empty bottle down. “Trust me, if I’m going to be forced to mingle around so many people I’ll need it.”


	6. Hungover

Yurak had a massive hangover. Apparently Altean alcohol was extremely strong and it snuck up on you too. He felt like someone had beaten him in the head with a hammer. He very slowly opened an eye and hissed in dismay when he was met with sunlight. He buried his face into his pillow and hissed some more.

“... Are you deflating?” Whispered Lance.

“Shut up Lance.” Muttered Yurak. “... LANCE?!” Yurak quickly sat up and instantly fell back over onto the bed and hissed some more. His head hurt so badly. He rolled around and grabbed a pillow, putting it over his head just so it would be dark again. “... Why are you in my room?”

“... Dude, this is my room.”

Yurak froze and very slowly peeked out from under the pillow. Yeah, he didn’t recognise this room. It was a lot more lived in then his guest room and had shelves full of books and nicknacks. The hair all over his body stood on end. What did he do last night? He quickly looked down at himself and was slightly scared to see he was wearing a big shirt that wasn’t his and his underwear. He looked over at Lance. He was sitting on the bed with him and looked concerned.

“... What did you do to me?” Growled Yurak. “You took advantage of me, didn’t you?!”

Lance quickly waved his hands around, looking shocked at the idea. “What? Dude! No! You got trashed last night. Like, you mingled for like twenty doboshes and then you ran off somewhere with two bottles of neffem, and you already chugged a bottle of it by yourself. Pidge found you curled up in one of the towers next to one of the generators she set up for lights and stuff. She sent me a video.”

Lance quickly grabbed his datapad and showed Yurak a video of him. Yurak was laying with his face pressed up against the side of a generator. He was hugging two empty bottles of neffem and looked quite happy to stay there and purr. Yurak looked over at the window and wondered if they were high enough for him to die if he jumped out of it.

“Still doesn’t explain why I am in your room.” Muttered Yurak.

“I’m getting to that.” Said Lance. “Anyway, Pidge was pretty sure you getting blitzed at your cousin’s wedding is an extremely bad PR move for the Galra, so I dragged your ass to my room since it was closest and no one was going to go in there and find you all drunk and dumb.”

“... And why am I undressed?”

“I left you alone for thirty dobosh’s and I came back to you in your underwear and half under my bed.” Said Lance. “You have any idea how hard it is to drag a drunk Galra out from under a bed? I put one of my night shirts on you and stuck you in my bed. You passed right the fuck out. Now we are here.”

“... Oh.” That sounded logical. Now that he thought about it he didn’t feel sore, sticky, or wet in places that he probably would have if he and Lance had done anything. “Okay…” He quickly pulled the blankets over his body and curled up. “I’m going back to sleep… Don’t wake me up until tomorrow.”

“... Alright. I’ll go and get you something to eat and drink. Be back soon.” Lance got off the bed and Yurak heard him shuffling around the room as he changed clothes and left the room.

When he was gone, Yurak sighed a little and sniffed the blanket. It smelled like Lance and it was kind of comforting. He closed his eyes and quickly fell back asleep. Hopefully Zarkon wouldn’t be trying to look for him anytime soon. He didn’t need to get yelled at for getting drunk and vanishing.

***

Admittedly Lance did feel a little guilty. He hadn’t been completely honest with Yurak about what happened. He kind of looked like he was going to murder him at the very thought that they had done anything intimate. Lance didn’t want to get murdered in his own bed. Last night hadn’t been as cut and dry as he had made it out to be.

When he came back to check on Yurak he thought that the Duke had run off somewhere. But then he heard a sneeze. Lance walked around the side of the bed and looked down at a pair of purple legs sticking out from under his bed. He was thankful that the butt attached to those legs was still wearing underwear. He also noticed that Galra apparently had toe beans and paw pads. Looking around he also noticed the Duke’s clothes were tossed aside into piles on the floor.

“... Alright then…” Lance grabbed Yurak by his ankles and carefully pulled him out. “Out you come Duke. Isn’t this unbecoming of you royal types?”

Yurak whined and huffed a few times. He had some dust in his hair and his ear was twitching, trying to get a particularly large dust bunny off of it. “Too bright.” He huffed.

Lance chuckled and crouched down next to him, wiping some of the dust off his face. Yurak wrinkled his nose and looked mildly annoyed, but it was cute. Especially when he sneezed again and went cross eyed for a moment.

He chuckled and cupped Yurak’s face in his hands and gently scratched under his chin. He was delighted when he saw Yurak’s eyes close, his ears droop, and he started to purr. It was amazing. Lance continued to give him scritches and watched as Yurak pretty much became all floppy like a kippen. A small feline that was a very popular house pet. Also good at getting rid of rodents.

“Now,” said Lance. “Why are you wearing you just in your underwear?”

“Hmm, too hot…” He muttered. “Didn’t feel good. Too stuffy. Wanted to cool down.”

“And hiding under the bed?”

“Too bright.”

“Right…” He pulled Yurak to his feet and carefully put him on his bed. The Galra instantly flopped back and buried his face into one of Lance’s many pillows. He continued to purr up a storm. Lance smiled at him and got one of his nightshirts out of the closet and managed to get it on him.

Yurak huffed and puffed some more and then he started flipping the sleeves around. He seemed to find amusement in it until he hit himself in the face. “HISS?!”

Lance rolled his eyes and sat next to him. “Well aren’t you a funny drunk.” Said Lance as he patted Yurak’s head. The Galra smiled a little and leaned into his hand, purring softly. “Super affectionate. Is this how you really are? Like, when you’re not all stuck up and being all important and stuff?”

Yurak hummed softly as his eyes fluttered open. “It’s nice… Not a lot of people touch you like this when you’re a Duke… I like it.”

Lance softly smiled at him and continued to pat. “Is it lonely being a Duke?”

“Yeah.”

“... What is your home like? The place where you live. You mentioned you have people that cook in your house?”

Yurak shrugged and nuzzled his hand. “Yeah. I pay about a dozen people to cook and clean… Some gardening. I’m not home much so I don’t talk to them… And I have a reputation.”

“What kind of reputation?”

He shrugged. “I’m a solider. I fought in the war. I was only given the title of Duke because I earned it. On Diabazzel only the Emperor can give you a title. I earned the title of Duke by saving Lotor’s life during the war.”

“Oh wow. I didn’t know that.”

Yurak shrugged and yawned, quickly becoming sleepy. “Yeah… Lot of things you don’t know about Galra…” His eyes slipped shut and he fell to his side, passed out drunk.

Lance shook his head and contemplated leaving the young Duke by himself, but he decided against it. He might try to crawl under the bed again for some reason. Lance got out of bed and changed into his nightclothes; a pair of sweatpants and a pale blue shirt. He sat back in his bed and took out a book to read. The reception was starting to die out anyway. Soon all the sloshed out and drunken dignitaries would stumble off back to their rooms or other people’s rooms. Plus he got out of cleaning this way if he just said he was taking care of a drunken Duke.

As he read his book he felt the mattress dip and he looked over to see Yurak moving closer to him. In his half sleepy state he was moving closer to him for a source of warmth. Yeah, Yurak was just like a baby kippen. He scratched behind his ears some more and felt the Galran pressed his face against his thigh and purr. It was adorable.

After a few varga’s Lance put his book down and lied down. Yurak squirmed around a little and somehow ended up with the blankets covering his head and torso while his legs were uncovered. Lance just chuckled and rolled his eyes. Yurak was cute.

***

When Lance got to the kitchen Hunk was busy cooking his hangover breakfast cure for everyone. He grinned and waved over at him. “Morning Lance. Need some food?”

“Hell yeah. What’s on the menu?” Asked Lance, like he didn’t know.

Hunk grinned. “Thick cut buttered syrup toast and fruit, fried eggs, sunny side up, sauteed and grilled mushrooms and tomatoes, some sausages and strips of amphater bacon. Oh, and stacks of deep fried hash browns.” 

“Sounds awesome.” Lance’s mouth was watering already. “By the way, Yurak ended up passing out drunk in my room, so I’ll bring his stuff to my room.”

Hunk raised an eyebrow but didn’t make much of a comment on that. “Okay. So, maybe no grilled vegetables and triple the meat?”

“Sounds perfect.” Lance sat at the table and quickly ate his breakfast and watched as servants were quickly running around and taking the plates off to the different rooms. When he was done, Lance quickly grabbed the modified Galra plate and some cutlery. 

He happily walked back to his room and was greeted by a very dazed and sleepy looking Yurak… That also kind of looked like he got hit by a truck. Yurak's nose twitched and he looked over at the food that Lance was holding.

“... Is that for me?”

“Yep… Please don’t spill it all over my bedsheets.”

Yurak rolled his eyes but did his best to not spill everything over Lance’s stuff. He seemed very happy to have a belly full of food and not booze. He seemed very happy when he ripped into his bacon and sausages.

“This is really good.” He quickly wolfed down his food and carefully put the plate and cutlery aside. “Um… Thank you. I should head back to my room now.”

“Yeah, just put your pants on first.”

Yurak’s fur quickly puffed up as he quickly changed back into his clothes and left the room slightly flustered. Lance couldn’t help but grin. Yurak was really, really cute… Maybe before he left he could get his number or something so they could message each other?


	7. Moving castles

Once the majority of the aristocracy had stopped having massive hangovers, the occupants of the castle started to make preparations for Allura and Lotor to leave to go back to Diabazzel. Yurak was more than ready to go back home, but he would be lying if he were to say that he wouldn’t miss the planet completely. He kind of liked hanging out with the Altean court jester. Lance was funny.

He and Shiro were standing around the front steps of the castle as they watched the Alteans were cramming all of Allura’s stuff into a cargo shuttle. It was interesting to see how many trunks of clothes she had. Apparently a lot of the boxes were full of traditional poofy dresses. Explained why they needed seven different trunks.

“That’s a lot of stuff.” Mused Shiro.

“Yeah… Have no idea why they need so much stuff. Oh well.” Yurak yawned as his ears flattened against his head and twitched. “So, how did things go with you and Adam? Did you get laid?”

Shiro’s fur puffed up and looked away, very embarrassed. “There were slight… complications.”

Yurak raised an eyebrow. “Too big? Altean’s don’t have knots?”

Shiro groaned in embarrassment. “More like we figured out that Altean’s skin isn’t as thick as a Galras… I kind of scratched him up a bit… And yeah, Altran’s don’t have knots.”

“Huh… Is Adam okay?”

“He’s a little pissed at me, but over all he’s fine.” Said Shiro. “Hopefully travel between us and Altea will now be more frequent. I’d really like to come here more often… or have Adam visit us.”

Yurak shrugged. “Give it time. Should be able to travel between kingdoms within half a deca-phoebe.”

“Heard it’s gonna be closer to a deca-phoebe.” Said Lance as he seemingly popped out of nowhere.

Yurak puffed up and jumped back into Shiro. “Don’t do that damn it!”

Lance snickered and grinned. “Sorry about that. Just thought I’d come back and see what you guys were talking about. By the way can I get your data code?”

“Huh? Why?” Asked Yurak.

Lance shrugged and took out his datapad. “I thought you were pretty cool and thought it would be nice to call you up sometime… But I get it if you have some kind of social rule thing about keeping in contact with someone like me. I mean, I’m not royalty or anything so…”

“There aren’t such rules.” Said Shiro. He lightly nudged Yurak and grinned. “I’m sure Zarkon would be pleased to know that you’re making friends with Altean’s.”

Yurak flattened his ears against his head and took Lance’s datapad off him and quickly inputted his data code. He made sure to save it under Duke Yurak. “There.”

Lance grinned and happily sent Yurak a quick message. “There. Now you have my data code too.”

“Cool.”

Lance grinned. “Yeah. So did you two like your time on Altea? Like, you didn’t get to see much of it and all… But did you like it?”

“It was lovely.” Said Shiro. “I hope to see more of it in the future.”

Lance smiled and held up his datapad. “Can I get your data code too? I’ll send you a few locations that you might like?”

“Sure.” Shiro handed over the datapad and Lance quickly added him.

“Thanks man. Maybe you can send me some stuff about Diabazeel?” Asked Lance. “I’d really like to learn more about your planet and people.”

“Can do.”

Lance grinned. “Awesome. I’d appreciate it.”

Allura walks over to them, wearing a much more casual, yet still regal dress. “Duke Yurak. Shiro. Lance.” She greeted. Yurak bowed along with Shiro as they greeted her. Lance did an over exaggerated bow, practically falling to one knee as he did so. She chuckled. “I’m sorry I didn’t have much time to talk to you during the reception. I was a little preoccupied with prior engagements.”

“It’s understandable.” Said Shiro. “We are both humbled that you would consider speaking with us at all on your wedding day. We both enjoyed the festivities.”

Allura smiled at him. “Thank you so much. I was worried that the wedding might not be to your tastes. I did ask my father to incorporate more Galra elements, but apparently both our fathers agreed to a fully Altean ceremony. Lotor wasn’t very comfortable with it…”

Yurak shrugged. “Well Galra are more private. It was still very nice and we are glad that you allowed us to be a part of it. If you need any help adapting to Galra culture please do not hesitate to call on us. We will do our best.”

Allura seemed a little surprised but smiled warmly and bowed slightly at him. “Thank you so much. That means a lot to me.” He looked over at Lance and grinned. “Well, so things are going to be different from now on, huh?”

Lance nodded. “Yep. It’s gonna be so weird not making any jokes about the losers that had no chance with you anymore. I had so much fun calling them out.”

“Well you’re going to have to find new material.”

“I know… But I am lazy!” He whined before dramatically collapsing on the stairs. “It’s soooooo much effort!”

Allura rolled her eyes and lightly nudged him with her shoe. “Are you done being dramatic?”

“Never!”

“Did you pack your bags?” 

“Done and done.”

Yurak tilted his head. “Huh?”

Allura sighed and nudged Lance again. “Romelle, my bride’s maid and lady in waiting, is coming with me when we go to Diabazzel. I also wanted Lance to come along for a few movements. Maybe a phoeb or two.”

“That’s right!” Said Lance as he stood back up. “Romelle is staying long term, but I’m just gonna make sure everything is all good and stuff before coming back. Consider me a diplomate.”

Yurak looked between Lance and Allura. “... Yeah, our kingdoms are probably going to go to war again if you consider Lance a diplomate.”

Lance gasped in shock while Allura chuckled. “It’s diplomate in name alone. He has no real power.”

Lance pouted. “Why can’t you just let me pretend I have some power rather than no power?”

“Lance, you can call my father a twat to his face in front of the court without getting punched in the face by a guard.” Said Allura. “You have more power than you think.”

“... Fair point.” He looked over at Yurak and grinned. “How long until I get turned into an Altean sword holder?”

“Five ticks.”

“Ah! I would survive at least six ticks!”

***

Lance was very excited to go to Diabazzel. Sure it had already been decided before the marriage, so Lance couldn’t say it was unexpected. But it was so excited. He was happily bouncing in his seat the whole way there. He just couldn’t. He’d always wanted to travel, but he couldn’t really do it since he was working pretty much every night.

This was like his vacation. The best vacation ever. He wondered what the palace would be like? Hell he wondered what his accommodation would be like? He wasn’t expecting anything fancy. Just something nice really.

The Diabazzel castle was a lot darker than the Altean castle. For one the stones some to be made of some kind of obsidian material with a slight purple tinge. It was pretty and he really, really liked it. The people there on the other hand… That was a slightly different story. Everyone seemed so stoic and serious. 

Contrary to popular belief, Lance did not want to get his ass kicked by every damn Galra in the castle. So he kept his mouth shut as he stood by Romelle and bowed as he was introduced to the aristocrats he was introduced to. Lance was more than happy to keep his mouth shut as Allura shared in small talk with the Lords and Ladies of the Galra court.

They seemed to approve of her and of Romelle, but they didn’t seem to care too much for Lance. He wasn’t very surprised. He was introduced as the Royal Altean Jester. They must have dismissed him because he was a fool with no real power. As far as they were concerned he was probably just entertainment for them. 

They were taken inside and Allura was taken to the bed chambers where she and Lotor would be spending their time. Romelle had the bedchambers across from them and Lance had bedchambers a few doors down from them. It was far fancier than anywhere that Lance had ever stayed before.

Lotor was nice enough to make sure that Lance and Romelle were settled in. “Is the room to your liking?” Asked the Prince.

Lance grinned and nodded as he sat on the bed. “Yeah. This room is pretty neat. I like it. So… Any rules? What do I do not to get killed?”

Lotor chuckled in amusement. “You should be fine going to most places. Just be a little cautious around the other Galra. Galra do not tend to like disrespect so your brand of humour could be labeled as disrespect.”

“Ah, fair enough.” Lance hummed a little as he drummed his fingers on his leg. “Would it be okay if I go and visit Yurak tomorrow?”

Lotor seemed a little surprised but nodded. “If you wish. Verpzar isn’t very far away from the castle… Would you like me to inform Yurak of your visit?”

Lance shook his head. “I have his data code. I can give him a call myself.”

“As you wish. I will send someone for you when it is time to eat… Just to clarify, Alteans prefer a more vegetable based diet?”

“Yep.”

Lotor nodded and had a thoughtful look on his face. “Alright. I will let you make the arrangements if that is what you wish.”

“Thanks Lotor.” When Lotor left his room, Lance happily pulled up his datapad and called Yurak up. He was very happy when Yurak accepted the call. The young Duke’s hair was very messy and slightly damp. He looked like he might have just gotten out of a bath. “Well, hello there Yurak.”

The Duke’s ear twitched slightly. _“Yeah? What’s up?”_ He started patting down his face and neck with a towel.

Lance shrugged. “So like, can I come over?”

Yurak raised an eyebrow. _“Hmm? You actually want to come over?”_

“Yeah. Like, I think I said if I ever came to Diabazzel I’d like to visit Verpzar, since you’re the Duke of it.” Said Lance with a smile. “Unless you have some Duke duties to attend to?”

He shrugged. _“Not really. I have a few documents to read and stamp, but I feel like it shouldn’t take more than a varga or two to read and rubber stamp. Things are fine.”_

Lance couldn’t help but grin. “Awesome. I’ll try to come over in the afternoon? Is that good with you?”

Yurak nodded. _“Yeah, if you like. That’ll be nice… Just get Lotor to have someone drop you off and I’ll have someone meet you at the door.”_

“Cool. Any dress requirements?”

 _“...?”_ Yurak tilted his head and twitched his ears a few times in flight confusion. _“You expecting to go dancing or something?Just wearing something comfortable. As long as you aren’t flashing your dick or butt anything you feel comfortable in is fine.”_

“Awesome. See you tomorrow afternoon Yurak.” Said Lance with a grin.

_“Okay. See you then.”_

Lance grinned and ended the call. He was happy that Yurak would let him come over. It would be a lot more fun hanging around Yurak rather than a bunch of strange Galra that would probably kill him if he greeted them wrong.


	8. Alcohol

The estate that Yurak lived in was interesting and Lance liked it. The house was large, the grounds were expensive, and there were several people walking around the grounds. Lance hoped that he didn’t look too shabby wearing his blue tunic and black tights. He got out of the carriage that Lotor had provided and walked to the front door where a Galra was waiting.

Lance smiled awkwardly up at him. “Hi…” He said nervously. “So um… I’m Lance…”

They hummed a little and nodded. “Yes. Duke Yurak has mentioned that you would be here. Please follow me.” He opened the door and Lance followed him into the dark stoned home. Galra seemed to like to decorate their walls with weapons and animal skulls.

“Ah, you’re here!” Called Yurak from the second floor. The young Duke was wearing a deep rich, red and purple tunic with silver trim. He didn’t seem like he was wearing anything underneath. Lance could feel his face heating up. The Duke walked over to him and gestured for the other Galra to leave them. “So, how was your trip to Diabazzel?”

“Pretty good. The castle is very nice… So, are you just wearing a tunic?”

Yurak looked down at himself and lifted up the edge of his tunic, showing that he was wearing skin tight shorts under it. “This is just typical Galra day wear. It can get pretty humid if you venture out into the wilds. It’s best to travel as light as possible.”

“... Okay, fair enough.” Said Lance. “I’m guessing Diabazzel fashion is going to surprise me a lot huh?”

“Yep. The fashion on Altea did surprise me a little too. Such as dresses. They seem like a waste of fabric being so long and layered.” Said Yurak. “Anyway, I guess I should show you around?”

“That would be nice.”

Yurak nodded and showed Lance around the estate. He pointed out the dining room, the sitting room, the kitchens, the drawing room, and a small armoury. All located on the bottom floor. On the second floor Yurak pointed out the guest bedrooms, his room, office, and personal library.

“This is pretty neat.” Said Lance. “Where do your servants sleep?”

Yurak shrugged. “There is a smaller building that’s attached to this one via an open walkway. That’s the servants quarters. Most live there, but several prefer to commute between here and the village since some have sick or aging relatives they wish to take care of… The servants quarters can only house fifteen adults comfortably anyway… Plus I don’t really stay in the house that much, so they pretty much get the run of the place.”

“Ah, I see… Well your home is quite lovely.” Said Lance. “Very much expected of a Duke if I do say so myself.”

“Thanks. Um, I guess you’d like to see the town?”

Lance grinned. “Sure. You can tell me all about Verpzar and what things you’re famous for.”

The two of them walked to the village and Lance happily listened to Yurak talk about the region of Verpzar. They were apparently famous on their planet for their alcohol and leatherworks. Which Lance found kind of amusing since Yurak didn’t seem to be able to hold his alcohol very well. Maybe it was just Altean wine? Either way Lance was excited to try it eventually.

When they got to the village Lance instantly noticed that Yurak’s attire really was the norm for Galra as most of the civilians were wearing tunics with various tight lengths. Though a few were wearing various different versions of togas… He was also pretty sure he was a few women walking around without anything covering their chests.

Yurak lightly hit him with his tail. “Quit staring.”

“Sorry. Just not used to seeing women walking without something covering their chests.” Muttered Lance. “Cultural differences and all that jazz.”

Yurak rolled his eyes. “Chests are chests. Quit gawking or they will poke you with something sharp and pointy for perceived intimidation.”

“That’s a thing here?”

“Well women used to keep their hair in place with long, sharp pins and used to stab people with them until they either left them alone or died, so just be thankful the law says they can’t stab you in the genitals or eyes.”

“Your species is one of intimidation that demands respect.”

“Thank you.”

Lance continued to look around at the village. It was really beautiful. Yurak gestured for him to follow him and the two walked a little way out of the village and to a brewery. There was a tavern attached to it. When they walked into the tavern some Galra gave Lance odd looks but they didn’t say anything to him.

Yurak told him to find a table and he went to the bar. The seats were a little taller than what Lance was used to and seemed to be more like the kind of stools Pidge would have at their workbench. Lance’s feet didn’t reach the ground.

Lance sat at a table by a window and looked outside to see people working in the fields. More than likely harvesting whatever plant it was that made their alcohol. Looked like some kind of purple plant.

As he pondered this Yurak came over with two pints of something blue in front of him. “Here. A pint of verwick.”

“Verwick huh?” Lance sipped it. It was thick like syrup and had a sharp, bitter taste to it. “Disgusting.” He drank some more. “It tastes like boot polish.” He drank more. “Disgusting, yet addicting.”

Yurak chuckled and drank his own drink. “That’s verwick for you.”

“Why is it so thick?”

Yurak shrugged. “The berries and sap from the yaryar bush is very thick. Good for jams too.”

“Are those the plants outside?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.” He sipped some more of his drink and wrinkled his nose a little. “Why can’t I stop drinking this?”

***

Yurak found that Lance was quite amusing. The Altean’s taste buds were not used to Galran food. To be fair, his weren’t accustomed to eating Altean food so as far as he was concerned they were even. Yurak noted that Lance’s nose wrinkled slightly when he sipped his drink. Obviously he didn’t like the drink but it looked kind of cute when he did it.

“You know, you don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”

“Tastes like cough syrup. I hate it.” He drank some more.

Yurak rolled his eyes. “Should I get you something to eat to get the taste of verwick out of your mouth?”

“What goes good with verwick?”

“Well, since it’s a common drink it’s usually eaten with crusty bread with either hard cheese, butter, or peppered meat.” Said Yurak. “It’s a good hearty meal. But would you prefer vegetables?”

“Hmm, I think I’ll just stick with the verwick for now.” Lance gulped down some more and pulled a face. “Why to I torture myself with this?”

“Because you’re a fool, not just in name but in action too?”

“Oh, the Duke fancies himself a comedian now?” Asked Lance in a mocking tone.

“Considering I am on Diabazzel and not Altean, I’d wager that my humour here is better than yours.”

“Says you.”

“Yep.”

Lance pouted and quickly finished his drink. “Fuck, that is awful…”

“You want to take a barrel back to Altea with you?”

“Yes…”

Yurak chuckled and rolled his eyes. “You really are a fool. I can get you a few barrels of verwick.”

“Good. It’s awful. I must torture Hunk and Pidge with it too.” They looked into the bottom of their glass and frowned. “So, is this what you usually do out here? Walk around and drink at the tavern?”

“I actually spend most of my day hunting.” Said Yurak. “It’s nice to be out there in nature.”

Lance frowned. “Then why didn’t you take me out there?”

Yurak shrugged. “You don’t seem like the kind of person that would like to go out in the wilds.”

The fool shook his head and wagged his finger in his face. “Oh no, you did not. You don’t just get to assume that I can’t hunt because I’m Altean mr tiny shorts.”

“Tiny shorts?”

“I’m an awesome hunter! Give me a bow and I’ll show you how awesome I am at hunting! I-!” Lance overbalanced on his stool and fell off it with an almighty crash.

Yurak jumped up in shock and leaned over the table and looked down at Lance. Several other Galra looked down at Lance with mild concern. “Um, are you okay?” Asked Yurak.

Lance nodded a little. “Yeah… That verwick stuff is stronger than I thought…”

“Yeah, we aren’t going hunting today.”

“Fair enough. I will probably stab myself.”

“Yep.” Yurak helped him to his feet and chuckled at him. “You’re a strange one. You know that right?”

Lance pouted. “You’re the strange one.” 

Yurak rolled his eyes and gestured around the tavern. “Look around Lance. You’re the odd one here.”

“... Oh shit you’re right.”

Some of the Galra sitting close to them were laughing at the absurdity of their conversation, but otherwise did nothing. Yurak shook his head and went to see if he could pay for someone to drive them back to his home in a wagon or something. He didn’t trust Lance to walk back.


	9. Tipsy

Galra beds were weird. At least, that’s what Lance thought. They were round and kind of had a strange lip thing that kind of made it look like a clam shell or some kind of shallow cave. Maybe a den? He wasn’t sure. It was still weird and Lance wasn’t too sure how to use it. The ones in the Palace were much more Altean. It was even more confusing in his slightly drunken state.

“Verwick tastes like shit.” Grumbled Lance and Yurak unceremoniously dumped him on the bed.

“And here you were saying it tasted like boot polish.” Said Yurak. “Fuck, I didn’t know that drinking a pink of verwick would make you this plastered.”

“I ain’t plastered.” Whined Lance. “I’m not wearing the right clothes for decorating.”

“Huh?”

“You know. Plastered. Like decorating walls and stuff you need plaster.”

“... Sober up you lush.” Yurak patted his head. “Lie down.”

“Hmm, only if you lie with me.” They reached up and grinned at him. “Come on, just lay next to me. Please?”

“... You are a very needy drunk, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Humor me. I’m a guest.”

Yurak poked Lance’s forehead and rolled his eyes. “You’re pretty insufferable. Even more so when drunk. I should probably inform Lotor not to let Allura have too much verwick since it seems to really mess with Alteans…”

Lance tilted his head slightly and looked up at him. “All I got from that was you think I’m pretty.”

“... You’re also an idiot.”

“A pretty idiot is still pretty.” Lance batted his eyelashes at him and Yurak wasn’t very impressed.

“... Is this some kind of Altean way or trying to seduce me?” Asked Yurak.

Lance scoffed. “What? No. If I was seducing you, you would know it… Like you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if I turned up the charm on you.”

“Oh really?”

“Yep.” Lance attempted to stand up again and failed. “Verwick sucks… Anyway, seduction!” He cleared his throat and smiled up at him and looked at the young Duke with what Lance assumed was a sexy look. “Hey there Yurak. You come here often? You know, coming to my bed chambers like this, yurak’ng for it.”

Yurak’s ears twitched slightly as he tilted his head. “... I don’t get it.”

“Because your name is yurak? So like, you’re asking? It’s a pun.”

“Galra aren’t big on puns. We are more direct with our seduction attempts.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right… Take two!” Lance lied back on the bed and practically did the splits. “Take me!”

“...” Yurak burst into laughter, practically doubling over. The Galra was almost wiping away tears from his eyes.

Lance was surprised to hear him laugh so hard, but it was kind of nice to hear the Duke actually laughing. He hadn’t really been able to do that when he was trying to on Altean. Yurak’s laugh, though it sounded rough, was lovely.

The Galra grinned at him. “We aren’t that direct. Nice try though.”

“Ah…” Lance moved his legs so they were at more of an acute angle. “Better?”

Yurak rolled his eyes and patted Lance’s head. “Rest. Sleep it off. I’ll be back in a varga or two. Then I’ll torture you with Galara food. You’re going to hate roast bewa.”

“Sounds disgusting. I love it.”

Yurak chuckled and left the room, and Lance sighed loudly. Yurak was cute. Really cute. Maybe it was just the alcohol talking, but he really wanted to grab hold of Yurak’s face and rub his face in that cutie’s purple fluff. So fluffy and cute. He’d have a little nap and then get back to the fine art of Galra seduction later.

***

Yurak calmly walked back to his room and sat down on his own bed. Once he was there, his fur puffed up and he desperately rubbed his face in an attempt to calm himself down. Lance, that damn drunk fool. Yurak knew he was flexible, but damn. He was a show off. Also, he really hoped that Lance didn’t try that move on any other Galra. They would more than likely take him up on the offer.

He picked up his datapad and quickly called the only person he could talk to about this situation. Shiro. Technically he could have also called Lotor, but he felt way more comfortable talking with Shiro.

 _“Afternoon my Duke.”_ Said Shiro in an overly formal way. He was probably out somewhere public if he was addressing him as such. _“What can I do for you?”_

“Are you free to talk now? It’s a private matter about Alteans…”

 _“Give me a few ticks.”_ Shiro quickly talked to someone as he walked to somewhere more private. _“Okay. What is it?”_

“What are Altean mating rituals?”

The older Galra looked shocked. _“... What?”_

“Like, do they take on mates for life or do they sleep around more freely?” Asked Yurak. “Do they give courting gifts or what? I am unsure.”

_“Mind if I ask why you are asking?”_

Yurak shrugged. “Lance is drunk and resting in my guest room… He attempted to seduce me with puns. Then he did the splits and told me to take him when I said we prefer us being straightforward and to the point.”

Shiro snorted out a small laugh. _“Really? So what did you do? Did you take him up on his offer?”_

“What part of Lance is drunk did you not get?”

_“Well if you were both drunk it’s a bit of a grey area? Kind of? It’s very morally grey at best.”_

“I’m sober enough and Lance is not.” Said Yurak calmly. “Plus I am pretty sure that he probably wouldn’t want to sleep with a Galra… And after hearing about your experiences with Adam…”

Shiro instantly became flustered. _“Well I um… I… You see I… Shut up.”_

Yurak smirked at his flustered attitude. “Aw, you all pouty now?”

_“I guess you don’t want my help?”_

“...”

_“Thought as much. So, as far as I can tell Altean’s don’t have many particular rituals… Just don’t bite or scratch. They have fragile skin… Are you attempting to maybe court Lance?”_

Yurak blushed and pouted. “No… But Altean’s confuse me and I don’t know if he is flirting with me or not… So I am unsure if he wants me… Alteans are weird. How did you know Adam wanted you?”

_“He kissed me.”_

“... Right.” He doubted that lush would kiss him if he was sober.

_“Yes. Don’t worry about it too much. If Lance likes you I’m sure he will let you know.”_

“Okay… Are you still in contact with Adam?”

 _“Yes… I hope he comes to visit when travel is allowed between our kingdoms.”_ He had a slightly wistful tone in his voice as he talked of Adam. He really seemed to like him and care for him. Yurak was happy that Shiro found someone they wanted that wanted him back.

“That’s really nice.”

_“Thank you. But Lance? Are you going to pursue anything with him?”_

“I… I’m not sure. Altean’s are… odd to me.”

Shiro chuckled. _“Well, you’ll figure it out. I need to get back to work now. Is that okay?”_

“I’m good. Thanks for talking to me.”

_“No problem. Bye.”_

“Bye.” Yurak hung up and sighed. Altean’s were strange. Lance was strange. He hoped that the Altean at least had enough modesty to be embarrassed when he sobered up later that evening.

***

Lance wanted to crawl into a hole and die. He sobered up pretty quickly and he couldn’t believe he told Yurak to fuck him. He was a stupid, stupid drunk. Besides, what member of aristocracy would actually want to sleep with him? Heck, did Galra even find Altean’s that attractive? He thought Yurak looked attractive, but Yurak probably thought he looked weird with skin instead of fur.

He sighed and sat up, his head hurt a little, but it wasn’t anything overly painful. He left the room and went to see if he could find Yurak again. Before he could get too far a young Galra woman came up to him. “Excuse me? You would be Lance?”

Lance looked at her and smiled. “Yeah. I’m Lance. Is there something I can do for you?”

“Duke Yurak has asked me to come and take you to the dining room. Please follow me.” She said.

Lance obliged and happily followed her to the dining room. Yurak was already there and talking a little with someone that might have been the chef? He wasn’t sure. There were two plates of food on the table. Yurak glanced over at Lance and the Galra woman when they walked in and gestured for the other Galra to leave.

“Thank you for bringing him.” Said Yurak. “You are both dismissed.” Once the servants left, Yurak gestured for Lance to sit, which he did. The plate of food in front of him looked to be mostly vegetable and plant matter, but it was very orange and burnt blue. “Um… I hope it’s to your liking.”

“Looks like it might be.’ Said Lance as he carefully poked a blue thing with his fork. “What is it?”

“Shredded manyar.” Said Yurak. “It’s leafy and tastes a little sweet when grilled like it is there. Also the orange stuff is mashed kardarmar. It tastes nice with a bit of salt.”

“Huh, nice.” He poked a slice of purple meat. “And this?” 

“It’s from a bird.” Said Yurak. “... Is it too much meat? I did ask the cook to make a plate with more vegetables than meat for you.”

“Oh no it’s fine. Thanks.” Lance ate some of the food and hummed happily. It was pretty nice. A little strange but he liked it. “Um... So about earlier…”

“Hmm?”

“I um, I kind of said and did some things that I am not very proud of… So um… sorry…”

“You mean the whole trying and failing to seduce me by spreading your legs?”

“... Yes. That.”

“It’s fine.” Said Yurak calmly. “It was… A little odd, but I’m not shocked or upset. People are strange when they are drunk. I’m sure you were just teasing me anyway.”

“Yeah… I get pretty flirty when I’m drunk. Just be thankful you’ve never seen me really drunk. Alfor almost made it law that I’m not allowed to get drunk. It caused so many disasters.”

“... I am almost afraid to ask, but it sounds entertaining.”

Lance smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. Still sorry about that… The food is really nice though. Galra food isn’t half bad.”

“I’m glad.” Keith ate some of his food before he paused. “Are you planning on staying the night or will I organise someone to escort you back to the castle?”

Lance shrugged. “Well, if you’ll have me then I’d like to stay for the night. I want to give Allura and Lotor as much time together as possible. I’ll go back if she wishes me to, but… It’s kind of nice here.”

“I’m glad you like it… It’s kind of nice to eat with someone again. I don’t usually eat with others…” The way Yurak said that made Lance’s heart ache for him. He’s pretty much always eaten with people, but he guessed with how isolated being royalty is Yurak didn’t have a lot of meals with other people.

“Well, as long as I’m here we can eat together. It’s um… It’s an Altean thing.”

“Oh really now?”

“Yeah. Now hush up and eat your orange mash.”


	10. Hunting

When Lance had sobered up the next day, Yurak decided that yes, he would take Lance hunting. Lance was excited and a little bit nervous. He didn’t know anything about the animals around here. He could accidentally shoot something endangered, or something illegal. However he wanted to show his skills off to Yurak. He wasn’t just a fool He was a jack of all trades.

Yurak showed him the armory and gestured to all the tools. “Take your pick. Swords, daggers, spears, bow, choose whatever you wish.”

“Going old school are we?” Asked Lance as he picked up what looked like a recurve bow made from a shiny blue and red metal. “Is there a quiver around?”

“Yeah.” Yurak passed him a quiver filled with about twenty yellow feathered arrows. “Here. These will be good for hunting raadaash. It’s a large herbivore with big horns. It has tusks. We can only hunt one of them once a phoeb.”

“... Because they are endangered?”

“No, because they are huge and hunting more than one is seen as being greedy.” Yurak grabbed a sword and a few throwing knives. “Anyway, to the wilds.”

“To the wilds!”

Lance happily followed Yurak into the wilds. The wilds as it turned out was his backyard. Just out a gate in a large blue hedge at the back of the estates. The wilds really were wild. The forests on Altea were much less… well, wild. Trees and vines twisted sharply around each other giving it a more vicious look. Like everything was strangling and trying to choke everything else around it. It was interesting.

“Wow… The wilds are kind of… interesting.” Said Lance. “Are we just going to go on foot?”

“Of course. It’s a little hard to ride an animal through here.” Yurak climbed over a tree root and helped Lance over them. “We aren’t going to go too deep into the wilds. There is a grove relatively close to my home that attracts a lot of animals. Even if we don’t hunt a raadaash we can still get a few birds.”

“Sounds delightful.” It didn’t really sound too delightful for Lance, but he did his best to sound enthusiastic. 

Yurak took him into a grove but kept low to the ground. Lance did the same and was surprised to see the large variety of animals that were in the grove. They seemed to have more of a magenta and purple colour tone to them which Lance found very attractive. A few herbivores were drinking from a small pool of water. It was beautiful.

“Whoa…”

“You like it?” Asked Yurak.

“Yeah… It’s beautiful.” Said Lance quietly. He watched a few deer looking creatures happily drink from the water. One of the smaller ones headbutted an adult and made a small gurgling noise. It made him chuckle. “Aw, baby is a bully.”

“Yeah. They are little assholes.” Said Yurak. “If they get closer and they find us , they might come over to see what we’re doing. They have been known to climb onto people and nibble their ears.”

“I take it you know from experience?”

Yurak’s ears wiggled slightly and he nodded. “Yeah… Assholes.”

Lance chuckled and grinned. “Can’t blame them. Your ears are very, very cute.”

“...” Yurak’s fur puffed up a little. “Shut up. My ears aren’t cute.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Yurak huffed in annoyance and flattened his ears against his head. He was kind of cute when he was all pouty and sulky. Made Lance want to squish his cheeks, or boop his snoot. He was about to when both heard a few branches snapping over the other side of the grove. 

A large animal, twice the size of the animals currently at the water’s edge, marched into view. “... Is that a raadaash?”

“Yep.” He pointed to the animal’s head and neck. “Its sweet spots are in the neck and, if you can get it, they eye. Next best way to take them down is to cut the tendons in their legs to make them fall. Then slit their throat.”

Lance nodded along. “Alright… Dumb question, but how the hell are we going to get something that big anywhere when we take them down?”

“I’ll call someone from the house to take the raadaash back.” Said Yurak. “It’s quite a sort after meat and can feed a lot of us. Plus their skins are really good for high quality leatherworks. Some of the maids could make a fair bit of money from that.”

Lance grinned. “Aw, you gonna let them sell it?”

“Well yeah, if they want.” Said Yurak like it was obvious. “I have a few raadaash skin rugs around the house and I don’t need another. Plus I can always buy any raadaash leather that I want. I’m rich enough to do so.”

“Fair.”

“Also, if you keep the people working for you happy they are less likely to stab you in the back.”

“Also fair.” He looked up at the raadaash and back at Yurak. “So… How are we going to do this?”

Yurak shrugged. “I don’t know how good you are with that bow you chose, but if you want to try shooting it go for the neck. Just remember that if you hit the mark we’re going to have to kill it. It’s just monstrous to shoot something and let the wound get infected.”

“We have the same policy on Altea.” Said Lance. “When we go hunting we’re taught to never hunt what you don’t intend to kill.” He got up on his knees and took an arrow out of the quiver. He took careful aim at the raadaash and let the arrow fly. The raadaash was still for a moment before it collapsed. Every other animal in the grove quickly scattered.

Yurak sat up and made a surprised noise. “That was… Impressive.”

“Aw, you can tell me the truth there Yurak.” Cooed Lance. “You’re impressed by me. I’m the best ever.”

Yurak rolled his eyes and walked over to the raadaash and had a look over the animal’s body. His ears perked up in shock when he looked at the animal’s face. “You shot it… In the eye…”

“Like it’s hard?”

“Lance! It’s really difficult to shoot anything in the eye! Two thirds of the arrow is sticking out of its head!”

Lance grinned and walked over to him. “So, I did good?”

“Yes… Very good… I’m going to call someone to get this…” He walked away still looking stunned that Lance actually killed the raadaash in one hit.

Lance just grinned. He was very proud of himself. It had been a while since he had gone and done any hunting. Allura’s heart just wasn’t in it and Alfor only brought Lance along because he was teaching Allura how to hunt. 

Yurak walked over to Lance. “We just have to wait about half a varga.”

“That’s fine with me.”

***

Lance was 100% flirting with him. He had to be. There was no fucking way that bastard wasn’t flirting with him. The fucker was happily flaunting his hunting skills and looked pretty while doing it. But he wasn’t pretty. Not really. No way Lance was pretty. He was just… It was just him being super drunk and not really knowing what he was saying.

And even if Lance found him attractive and was actually flirting with him, Yurak didn’t feel the same way about him. Right? Lance wasn’t… Yurak didn’t… He looked over at Lance who was currently washing his hands in the water. He was humming happily to himself and occasionally ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it out of the way and he’d flash Yurak those pretty blue eyes.

The fur on Yurak’s body stood on end as he felt his face heat up. Lance wasn’t cute. He wasn’t cute at all. Lance was some weird gangly Altean that made jokes and stuff… He totally wasn’t a good hunter that just took down a fucking raadaash without a second thought.

Some of the servants from his estate soon showed up and took their kill back to be skinned and cleaned. The two of them continued to hunt for a few more hours. They shot a few more birds and some kind of rabbit things. 

Lance was very happy with what they got and was talking about how hunting was a little different on Altea. Yurak was happy to listen to his stories. He probably wouldn’t have believed Lance’s stories about the things he had hunted if he hadn’t witnessed first hand his hunting skills.

When they left the wilds and went back to the estate, Yurak dropped the animals off in the kitchen. Told the staff that they could do whatever they wanted with the things they hunted. They, like usual, were very pleased with this and happily took them away.

“So Yurak, what are the bathrooms like here?” Asked Lance.

“Sorry?”

“Like, on Altea we usually have baths and showers. So like, what do you guys have?” Asked Lance.

“... Right. It’s just a small soaking tub. You just sit in there and like… soak.” Said Yurak. “Nothing crazy.”

“Cool. I’m going to do that.” Lance happily walked off and Yurak couldn’t help but watch Lance walk away.

He could feel all the fur on his body puffing up. Yurak walked back to his room and took out his datapad. He proceeded to call Shiro. “Shiro… I think I like Lance.”


	11. Courting

Yurak nervously sat on his bed and started to groom himself. He was stressed. His talk with Shiro had yielded nothing. Absolutely nothing. The only thing Shiro suggested was that he “present himself” to Lance to let him know he liked him. Something Yurak had never done before.

Besides, presenting to someone else was way too intimate. Just because Shiro fucked the first Altean he kissed doesn’t mean Yurak had to do the same. Besides, Lance was… he wasn’t… There was no way that he wanted to be with a Galra anyway… But it couldn’t hurt to show he was a little interested in Lance, right? It would be more convenient than grooming himself to the point his fur was starting to fall out.

Galra had scent glands on their wrists. Rubbing one’s wrists would stimulate the glands and, by doing so, Galra could leave their scent on things to mark territory, leave a trail, or in cases of mating, it was a bit of a test. Galra would scent mark small things around their home, and wait to see if the person they were interested in would take them to decorate their sleeping areas with them. He wasn’t sure if Altean’s had a good enough sense of smell but this was subtle enough.

Yurak awkwardly rubbed his wrist against a few things around his room. Things like his pillows, some books, a few interesting trinkets he picked up that he found interesting. He hoped that maybe Lance would at least like the things he scented even if he couldn’t smell it… He was going to have to inform the staff not to touch anything he scented.

He left his room and wondered if he had to put the items he scented around the house for Lance to find? He wasn’t sure. But speaking of Lance, the Altean seemed to be taking his time in his bathroom. Keith decided to check on him. Just knock on the door to make sure that he was fine.

Yurak went into Lance’s room and knocked on the bathroom door. “Lance? You still in there?”

“Yeah!” Called out Lance. “Why is the way you bathe so weird?”

“... What do you mean?”

“You sit in a small , shallow pool of water. It isn’t really a bath. Like, I’m literally laying on my back right now and I’m hardly in the water.”

“Yeah… Our natural oils clean us pretty well. That is mainly for when we get stuff matted in our fur or if we start to smell. Just a quick scrub and all that.” Said Yurak calmly. “I guess it’s a little different on Altea?”

“Yeah. It is… Have I been in here for too long?”

“A little longer than a Galra would normally spend.”

“Oh.”

“I’ll be out in a few ticks.”

“Okay.” Yurak looked around and awkwardly sat on the bed and waited for him. His tail twitched nervously as he wondered if he should maybe lay back and assume a submissive position? But then again that might be a little too much for the Altean. Plus Lance didn’t even accept any of the things he had scented yet. Lance might consider him rude if he did so. Many Galra would happily throw anyone out of their bedchambers if they tried to present themselves like that. 

Maybe he should leave? Yeah, that was probably a good idea. Yurak got up to leave just as Lance was walking out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He seemed a little surprised that Yurak was there.

Yurak’s fur puffed up like he had just shoved his tail in an electric socket, again. “I um… Sorry!” Squeaked Yurak as he quickly left the room. Lance had to be naked under that towel. Why didn’t he get dressed while he was in the bathroom? He didn’t understand. Was that normal Altean behaviour? He was so confused… He still needed to talk to the staff about the stuff he scented.

***

Later that evening Lance wandered around the lower floor of the house. He liked seeing all the interesting and different things that were decorating each room. Lots of animal hides and skulls. He wondered if Yurak was the one that killed them all or if they were gifts or bought.

He stopped in front of a large taxidermied four armed bear thing. The fur was a dark red and it had large teeth. It was interesting looking to say the least. Very scary. He had a feeling this thing might do something weird like spit acid. 

“I’m guessing you don’t have bargrats on Altea?” Asked a maid.

Lance nodded. “Yeah. We don’t have these kinds of animals on my planet. It’s interesting.”

The maid nodded. “I see. Bargrats are very aggressive. They aren’t native to our region. They live much further North. The Marquess and Marchioness of Carcrang organise a hunt every other deco phoebe. They invite everyone in the royal court to their Summer home for a movement of hunting.” 

“Oh, so Yurak shot this?”

The maid nodded. “I believe Duke Yurak and the Baroness of Fichrog had been hunting the bargrat for several quintants. Dunk Yurak got the killing shot so he got to keep the fur. They divided the meat.”

“Huh, that’s interesting…”

The maid nodded. “Yes… Have you seen anything you like?”

“Like the tapestries and skulls?”

They shrugged. “I guess… Are there any tapestries you like?”

“Um… Let me show you.” Lance and the maid walked into the sitting room and Lance gestured to the tapestry depicting vineyards where Galra were working, forests where they hunted, and people working with lather. “This one.”

The maid nodded. “Ah yes. This one is a small piece of a much larger tapestry at the palace. It depicts the three main things that a Galra thinks of when they think of Verpzar. They think of our alcohol, our relatively safe wilds, and our craftsmanship with leather. Each member of the royal court has one of these in their homes.”

“Huh, neat. Wish I had one of these in my room… I have the Altean royal crest on a banner hung up in my room but that’s about it. Now don’t tell anyone, but I kind of like this one a lot more than the ones back home.”

She chuckled. “Aw, you’re too nice. I’m sure your tapestries are lovely too.”

“Well they probably don’t look as impressive to me since I’m used to seeing them.”

“Possibly. Is there anything else you have taken an interest in?”

“Um…” Lance looked around the room. “Well, everything is kind of interesting to me. I mean, I don’t have anything like this on my planet… Do you have some simple books I can try reading?”

“Like a children’s book?” She inquired. 

“Yeah.”

She thought for a moment. “Hmm, if you’d like, I can bring you a few children’s books to have a look at.”

“I’d appreciate it.”

“Please wait here.” The maid quickly left the room and soon returned with two books. One with the Galran alphabet and one that was a simple children’s book. “These belong to my sister’s kit. They are a little older now so they aren’t really interested in them anymore, so it should be pretty good for you to learn our language.”

“Thank you.” Lance sat down on a chair and had a look through the books. They were simple enough to understand, so he spent the rest of his afternoon reading over children’s books and trying to annunciate the simple words properly. He felt like he was doing a pretty good job of it too.

Eventually someone came to bring Lance to the dining room. Yurak was already there and seemed to be waiting for him. He smiled happily at him when he noticed that Lance was in the room.

“Hey Lance.”

“Hey.” Lance happily sat down. “What are we eating tonight?”

“Raadaash tenderloin.” Said Yurak. “There’s also the same vegetables from the other night with some pickled nornorkida.. It’s the red stuff.”

“Ah, okay. Thank you.” He happily cut into the meat. “Don’t usually get to eat tenderloin. It’s kind of more expensive.Usually end up eating stuff like the skirt of flank.”

“I personally prefer the tongue or neck…” Said Yurak quietly. “But the tenderloin is really nice too.”

“Ah, okay.” Lance happily ate the food, but he found that the pickled red stuff tasted a little bitter. Kind of crunchy too.

Yurak ate some of his food. “So… Um… Do you like the estate?”

“Oh yeah. Your home is lovely. I like it.”

“Is there anything you like?” Asked Yurak. “Like, have you seen um… Anything that you like? Things that you find interesting?”

“Um, I like the tapestries and the big bargrat thing. It’s pretty cool.”

Yurak’s ears drooped slightly and he went back to eating his food. “Ah, okay...”

***

While Lance and Yurak were tiptoeing around each other’s feelings, Shiro went to see if he could speak with Allura, if she was free of course. He happened to find her and her friend Romelle in the gardens.

He bowed at them both. “Ladies.”

“Hello Shiro.” Said Allura. “May we help you with something?”

“Yes. You see, Yurak has become quite smitten with your fool.”

Romelle chuckled. “Well that explains where he went.”

Allura grinned. “Oh yes. Well, is there a problem? Is there some kind of law that wouldn’t allow someone from the royal court to be with someone outside of the royal court?”

Shiro chuckled. “It’s fine. No problems there. I’m just wondering if there are any courting rituals that Altean’s have. Galra have their own of course, and I’m trying to give Yurak some advice on how to effectively let Lance know that he’s interested in him.”

“Small gifts.” Said Romelle. “Things like small rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings… Things like that. Though you need to actually say it’s a gift because you like them and that’s what it’s for. Small gifts are definitely preferred at the start of a potential courtship. Large gifts are seen as tacky.”

Shiro nodded as he listened along. “Huh, I see… we have something kind of similar. We scent personal objects and leave them for our potential partners to take… If I know Yurak, he’s probably scented some of his stuff and left it around the estate to see if Lance will take them…”

“Probably not.” Said Allura. “We would consider that stealing. Plus our sense of smell is nowhere near as strong as yours. Lotor could still smell the flowers well into the evening. Even after I had a shower and couldn’t smell it myself.”

“Ah, that might be a problem…” Muttered Shiro. “I’ll have to inform Yurak about this before he assumes Lance is rejecting him… Do you think Yurak has a chance with Lance?”

Allura shrugged. “I haven’t had a good heart to heart with Lance in a long time, what with my wedding and all. But he hasn’t complained about Yurak… He was kind of excited to be able to look around Diabazzel outside of the castle. I guess being with Yurak could have been part of it.”

Shiro nodded in agreement. “Is Lance attracted to men?”

“Men and women.” Informed Romelle. “So Lance should be fine with dating a Galra if he liked them. Yurak is in with a chance.”

“It would be wonderful if there was another Altean-Galra relationship so soon after Lotor and I.” Said Allura happily. “The more our people intermingle the easier it will be to keep and maintain peace.”

Shiro nodded in agreement. “Yeah, okay… Is there anything important he should or shouldn’t do to try and win Lance over?”

Allura shrugged. “Alteans are a very physical people. We like people close to each other. Lots of hand holding, hugging, general touching. That kind of stuff.”

“Noted. I’ll inform Yurak. Thank you, your majesty for your help. You too Romelle.” Shiro politely excused himself and went back to work. He was still technically on the clock and still had a varga left until he could officially leave. He’d inform Yurak of his findings when he could.


	12. I am courting you

That evening Lance had made his way into Yurak’s office to read the books he had borrowed. He was having trouble reading some of the words, but it wasn’t that difficult. If he could read and write Ancient Altaic he could master modern day Galran… or so he thought. A lot of their letters looked the same and they changed depending on what letters were paired next to each other. It was pretty crazy.

“Are you okay?” Asked Yurak from his desk. The young Duke had a few things he needed to sign and send off before the end of the night.

“Just reading… Your alphabet is a little hard.” Confessed Lance.

“Just wait until you get to names and titles. I have five names.”

Lance frowned and looked up at him. “Five names?”

“Yep. Well, some of them have titles attached to it but I am; Yurak, Duke Yurak of Verpzar, Yurak the head taker, Yurak son of Akira the reaper of souls, and… um… The name only my lover can know and call me by.”

“... Why do you have so many names?” Asked Lance.

Yurak shrugged. “Yurak is the name I am known by. Duke Yurak of Verpzar is what the people know me by. Yurak the head taker is what I was known as when I fought during the war. Akira the reaper of souls is what my father was known as, so I am his son. Before I was part of the army when you’re introduced to someone you’re introduced as the son or daughter of your primary caregiver. My mother was away for most of my childhood but I would have been known as Yurak son of Krolia the decapitator if she stayed.”

“... Your parents are scary.” Muttered Lance. “But what about that other name? The secret name?”

“All Galra have a secret name.” Said Yurak. “... We have secret names that our lovers know about. It’s special and intimate. It’s a name we choose for ourselves and only share with our lovers on our wedding night.”

“Oh?” That was kind of a surprise to Lance. They didn’t have this kind of naming or title convention back on Altea. 

“Yeah.” Yurak stamped a few more papers. “... The only ones that know my secret name are Shiro and my parents. And that’s because it’s normal for Galra to talk to their parents about their secret names. Shiro just found out because he found the paper I was brainstorming ideas on. Bastard.”

Lance snickered a little. “Did you swear him to secrecy?”

“Damn right I did.” Grumbled Yurak. “I made him tell me his secret name too since he found out mine.”

“Is it really that big of a deal?”

“It is.” Yurak started to put his papers away. “Like Alteans we do have traditions that we stick to and we will fight for. It might seem silly to you but-”

“I don’t think it’s silly.” Said Lance. “It’s just different.” He smiled at Yurak. “It’s okay. I find it interesting. So your lover gets to know your secret name?”

“Yeah…” Yurak got up from his desk and frowned a little. “What do Altean’s do? If you don’t have a name to give your lover, then what do you do?”

“Sex mostly.”

Yurak’s fur puffed up slightly. “Oh… Okay… Altean’s don’t mate for life I take it?”

“No. Do Galra?”

Yurak shrugged. “Mostly, but we have a few exceptions. Such as a spouse dies and in cases of abuse… It’s getting late. You should probably think about turning in soon.”

“Yeah, probably… Night Yurak.” Said Lance.

“Night Lance.”

“... Or should I call you Duke Yurak of Verpzar? Yurak the head taker? Yurak son of Akira the reaper of souls?”

Yurak rolled his eyes and pushed him out the door. “Do to bed Lance.”

“Aww, you’re so mean. I was just teasing you.” Whined Lance, but he headed back to his room. He probably only had a few more days before he’d be going back to Altea. He’d miss talking to Yurak, but he was okay with that. They still had each other’s numbers. They could call each other when they wanted. It wasn’t that bad.

As he walked home he saw a small table pressed up against the wall. There were fresh flowers in the vase. They were bright purple with yellow spots. It smelled kind of fruity. Also on the table, just tucked away behind the vase, was a small animal skull decorated with pearls, rubies and gold.

He picked it up and turned it over in his hands. It was really pretty. Probably worth more than his life though. Damn rich people. He was about to put it down when he heard a gasp from down the hallway. Lance quickly turned around to see a maid. Lance quickly put the skull down and held his hands up.

“I wasn’t going to take it! I was just looking at it! Sorry!”

“Oh, no, no, no!” Said the maid quickly as she ran over to him. She picked up the skull and put it in Lance’s hands. “You picked it up. You keep it. You like it don’t you?”

“Well yeah? I like it but-”

“But nothing.” They said quickly. They picked up the skull and put it in Lance’s hands. “You like it so take it. Yurak won’t be mad if you take it. In fact, I think he will be pretty pleased if you do.”

“... Really?”

“Oh yes.” They nodded and smiled happily at him. “Please, take it with you.”

Lance nodded a little and awkwardly walked back to his room with the skull. He assumed that this was some kind of Galra thing, so he just put it on his bedside table and went to bed. The skull thing was very pretty, but he should probably put it back. If Yurak saw that he took it, he might get mad at him despite what the maid had said. He’d worry about that in the morning.

***

The next morning Yurak very patiently waited by the front door. He had spoken with Shiro and found out about Altean courting, so he sent out someone to buy several rings, necklaces, and bracelets. He wasn’t sure if he needed to give them to Lance over time or if he should just dump them all on him at once.

When they came back with the jewelry, Yurak took it to his room to sort through it all. He found twenty pieces he liked and wanted to give to Lance right away. The rest he could give to him throughout the day.

He quickly gathered it up and headed over to Lance’s room. He quickly knocked and Lance called out. “Come in!”

Yurak pushed open the door and his fur puffed up a little when he saw Lance sitting on his bed. He looked like he had just woken up. His hair was a little messy and his nightshirt was falling off his shoulder. So cute.

He cleared his throat and shuffled awkwardly in the doorway. “Morning…”

Lance smiled at him. He looked so sleepy. “Morning Yurak. What’s up?”

“I um… I…” Yurak walked over to him and quickly dumped the jewelry onto Lance’s lap. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted one of the objects he had scented and left around the house next to Lance’s bed. A little jartac skull. A common rodent. It made his heart swell a little. Maybe it was a coincidence? But it still made him happy.

“Yurak?”

“... I am trying to court you!” Yurak quickly turned around and left, slamming the door behind himself. He was shaking, but very happy. He did it. He did what Shiro had said Altean’s liked. He gave him jewelry and made it clear that it was because he was courting him. That was good. He did a good thing.

He smiled and walked down to the kitchens. As far as Yurak was concerned he had done a good job and was well on the way to courting Lance.

***

It was a beautiful day and Lotor had taken Allura and Romelle to the Timtartor region of the planet. It was well known for their perfumes and jewelry. The Lord was also technically Lotor’s great uncle, so that was nice.

Allura was interested to see what kind of perfumes Galra found pleasant. She hoped that there were some mild floral scents. She did enjoy those over more powerful scents. As she thought about this her datapad started going off. It was Lance. She shared a look with Romelle while Lotor seemed a little confused.

“Is it your father or Lance?” Asked Lotor.

“It’s Lance. Definitely Lance.” She answered it. “Hello?”

 _“HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”_ Screeched Lance.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “What did you do this time?”

Lance gasped in horror. _“Firstly, how dare you think I would get in trouble. I am a guest on this planet! Secondly, I think Yurak wants to fuck me!”_ Romelle snorted out a laugh while Lotor looked mortified. _“... I’m on speaker aren’t I?”_

“Yes you are. Say hello to Romelle and Lotor.” She said.

“Hi Lance.” Cooed Romelle.

“Hello there.” Said Lotor.

_“Hi guys… Now I am going to throw myself out the nearest window. Goodbye cruel world…”_

“Oh don’t be so dramatic.” Scolded Allura. “Now what is all this about?”

_“Yurak dropped like six bracelets… five earrings… and… nine necklaces on my bed this morning. Yelled that he was courting me and ran off. Help!”_

“You can always return it.” Said Romelle. “Let him know you don’t like it or you aren’t interested in it.”

_“... But it’s so pretty.”_

The Altean’s rolled their eyes while Lotor shook his head. “Lance, are you serious?” Asked Allura. “... You’re wearing some of it right now aren’t you?”

_“... No.”_

“Lance.”

 _“Just a bracelet…”_ He muttered. _“Anyway, am I going to die now or something? How do Galra do courting?”_

“Have you taken anything he scented back to your room?” Asked Lotor. “I don’t know if you can smell when something has been scented, but we scent things to see if the ones we are interested in will take them to decorate their sleeping spaces.”

_“... Oh shit…”_

Allura frowned. “Lance… What did you do?”

_“I just picked it up because I thought it looked neat and a maid told me to take it!”_

“What. Did. You. Do?”

_“I um… I kind of have a tiny skull decorated in pearls and stuff?”_

“Oh a jartac skull.” Said Lotor. “It’s very common here. When you come of age your parents bestow you with it. It’s just a little thing to show that you are an adult. In the old days it used to be a big deal, these days not so much. It’s more of a formality thing. But it’s still very personal.”

 _“... Eaaaaaaaarrrrrrg!”_ It sounded like Lance was dying on the other end. _“I didn’t mean to take something that personal or anything like that! It was an accident! I swear!”_

Allura just shook her head. “Lance, you’re not in trouble. But I do have a question for you.”

_“Yes?”_

“Do you like Yurak?”

_“... I um… I kind of? I mean he’s really cute and I like him and… He does look really soft…”_

Romelle rolled her eyes. “Just go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like Galra mate for life…” She looked over at Lotor. “Do Galra mate for life?”

Lotor shook his head. “It’s a little more complicated than that. But Romelle is right… But if things do get bad we can get you back to Altea before Yurak can grab a battleaxe.”

_“Thanks for the confidence…”_

“You’ll be fine.” Assured Lotor. “Since you accepted Yurak’s courting gifts he might get a little more physical with you.”

_“... My butthole is clenched.”_

Lotor rolled his eyes. “I don’t mean like that. I mean he will try to close the distance between you two. Proximity wise. He’ll just be close to you… However if you continue to reciprocate his feelings that comment about clenching your butt might be appropriate.” 

Lance made a sound like a deflating balloon. _“But aren’t Romelle and I going to go back to Altea soon? We can’t just get together like that! These things take time!”_

Allura hummed a little and smiled. “Well, I guess this means you’re having an extended vacation. Have fun Lance.”

_“Wait! Allura! You can’t ju-”_

Allura ended the call and put her datapad on silent. Romelle quickly did the same. “Well that takes care of that.”

“You think those two fools are going to get together?” Asked Romelle.

She shrugged. “Perhaps. They just need some time to get along. What do you think, Lotor?”

The man shrugged. “Personally I am just shocked that Yurak is showing interest in someone. He didn’t seem like the kind of Galra that would partake in finding a partner… Looks like he was just looking on the wrong planet.”

“Indeed.” Allura looked out the window and took a quick video of the changing scenery. It was beautiful and she was going to send it to her father when they got interplanetary reception.


	13. More gifts for you

Lance immediately noticed that everyone in Yurak’s house was acting a little different around him now that Yurak was courting him. The maids would grin and giggle slightly behind his back and the male workers would slyly smirk at him. They obviously knew that Yurak was starting to court Lance, and Lance wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Back on Altea he was on the other side of it all. He was the one seeing the members of the royal court dancing around each other and courting. No one had ever liked Lance enough to try and court him before. He was used to watching on the sidelines and making funny quips and jokes about failed courting attempts. It was weird being the center of attention for once.

Yurak was very slowly moving closer to Lance. He was very slightly closing the distance between them and was always leaving little bits of jewelry for him. He seemed to really like giving Lance bracelets. Mostly fancy leather looking things with beads threaded through them. It was pretty.

When Lance went for a walk in the garden just to have some fresh air, he was pretty sure that Yurak was stalking him. He had no idea if this was part of Galra courting or if Yurak was just weird. Maybe he was paranoid. He was still having difficulty reading Galran, so he couldn’t just read up on Galra courting practices. It was annoying.

He would look one way and then quickly look around to see if anyone was following him. He would occasionally see the tip of Yurak’s tail quickly vanishing behind a tree or bush. Yeah, Yurak was following him.

Lance sat down by a small pond and looked down at the fish swimming in there. They were really, really big with eyes as large as fists. It was both impressive and massively scary. Their scales were dark purple with hints of bright blue. Okay, it was pretty but scary as hell.

“Deku fish.” Said Yurak.

Lance yelped and almost fell into the pond. “Holy fuck! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Sorry!” Squeaked Yurak. “I just… I was just telling you what kind of fish they are…”

“... Okay.” He looked down at the deku fish happily swimming around the pond. “It’s big.”

“Yeah. That’s about as big as they get.” Said Yurak. “... It’s a freshwater deku. It’s said they can live for ten thousand deca-phoebs.”

“... Oh wow. That’s one old fish.” 

“Yeah. The deku fish are a protected species here.” Said Yurak. “The house came with it. Even if no one lived here then the emperor would pay for workers to keep the pond clean and the fish fed.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah.” Yurak leaned forward and slapped his hand against the water a few times. The deku fish swam up to him and Yurak gave the scaly fellow a few pats. The fish bobbed in the water a few times and its gills fluttered in happiness. “Want to pat them?”

“Will it bite?”

“Only if you stick your hand in its mouth.”

Lance frowned a little, but patted the fish. The fish continued to flutter their gills and acted very happy. Their scales weren’t rough persay, but kind of well textured? It was nice. He enjoyed it. He kind of liked it. When the fish got tired of this they happily turned around and happily swam into the depths of the pond, but the shimmer of the blue scales made it very visible. 

“Wow… They really like pats huh?”

Yurak nodded. “Yeah. They are really sweet fish. Very smart. They like getting pats because it helps rub off some of the pond scum or parasites they get between their scales.”

“Huh, alright.”

“Yeah…” Yurak scooted a little closer to Lance so they were shoulder to shoulder. His tail flicked around excitedly, occasionally flicking against Lance’s back. He seemed to be getting bolder with his actions. “So… Um… Are you going back to Altea soon?”

“Allura’s decreed that I’m to stay for a bit longer.”

“Oh? Really?” Yurak seemed very happy about that.

“Yeah.” Lance was more than happy to leave out that she was letting him stay there so that they could continue courting. That would probably encourage him a little more than what he was comfortable with at the moment. “So were you stalking me?”

Yurak’s fur puffed up and he quickly looked away from him. “I-I wasn’t following you… I just happened to be outside when you were outside and I wanted to give you some privacy while making sure that you weren’t… I was just making sure you were okay…” They held Lance’s wrist and tied a new bracelet to it. “Courting gift.”

“Thanks.” It was a pretty silver bracelet this time.

Yurak smiled and lightly rubbed his shoulder up against Lance’s arm. “... You aren’t wearing the necklaces or earrings… Are they not something you like?”

“It isn’t that. I just… I don’t really wear much jewelry in general. My job kind of means everything will get all tangled up.” Said Lance. “If I need to dress up or something I’d usually put on body paint.”

Yurak tilted his head in confusion. “Body paint? What is body paint?”

“It’s like paint, but made to go on your body.” Explained Lance.

“Do you… Do you prefer body paint?”

“Kind of. Why?”

“... No reason.” Muttered Yurak. He seemed to be thinking about something, but Lance didn’t know what about. It kind of worried him that Yurak would do something stupid.

***

When Lance had gone back inside to try and learn to read Galran, Yurak slipped off to his office and talked to Shiro. He knew it was Shiro’s day off so he could help him out. Maybe. He wasn’t too sure. He hoped he would be able to. He sat at his desk and called up the man.

“Are you free to talk now Shiro?” Asked Yurak.

 _“Oh sure. I was just catching up on some TV.”_ Said Shiro. _“What’s up?”_

“Have you heard of body paint?” He asked. “Do we even have body paint on Dibazzel?”

_“Um… I’m not sure. I know that we have paint. Why?”_

Yurak shrugged. “Lance said he liked body paint. I want to give him body paint. He said he liked it more than jewelry because it won’t fall off when he does his fool routine… I want him to wear nice things and feel good when wearing them.”

 _“... I have an idea, give me a moment and I’ll get back to you.”_ Said Shiro. _“Don’t do something stupid.”_

Yurak huffed and ended the call. He had no idea what Shiro was doing, but he hoped that it meant that he could get his hands on body paint and give it to Lance. If Lance wore body paint then did that mean he would have to disrobe? Yurak’s fur puffed up as he thought of Lance undressing in front of him and asking him to help paint his body. It made heat start to pool in his stomach.

He groaned and shook his head. Now was not the time to suddenly get hard. He wasn’t even in his room, and he wasn’t pathetic enough to get horny over just a passing thought of Lance’s smooth, soft, flawless, sun kissed skin… Yurak headbutted the desk and groaned. This was stupid. He hated it. Why did Lance have to be so fucking hot?

***

Shiro thought about this long and hard about this. He was probably going to get completely reamed by doing this, but yeah. He probably needed to do this. With a slight pang of nervousness, he called Adam.

 _“Oh wow, you actually decided to call me.”_ Said Adam in a monotone voice. _“Have the stars finally aligned? Have wigwannas grown wings and started to fly?”_

Shiro felt guilty. “I know, I know. I am really, really sorry. Work has been kind of crazy trying to make sure that Prince Lotor and Princess Allura had enough security…”

 _“You fucked me and left.”_ Said Adam coldly. 

“Yeah…”

_“I haven’t heard from you.”_

“I know…”

 _“For two movements.”_ He muttered. _“Two movements… Am I a joke to you Shiro?”_

“What? No.” Shiro’s ears pressed back against his head and he felt completely guilty. This was his fault. He hadn’t been very good at keeping in contact with Adam. He was never good at keeping relationships. Sure he was nice enough and people did like him, but no one was ever really close to him, apart from Yurak. “Look, I’m really sorry. I’m not good at this. I… I really like you, and I don’t really know how relationships work. I don’t… I’ve never been with anyone before.”

Adam scoffed at that. _“Yeah, sure.”_

“It’s true.” Reassured Shiro. “By Galra standards I’m above average at best, but I’m still not super impressive. You’re the first person I’ve ever been with…”

_“... Wait, you were a virgin before that night?”_

“Yeah?” Shiro became confused. “Do Alteans not like partners without experience? Did I cross some cultural line?”

Adam was quiet for a moment. _“I just didn’t expect that you were… I didn’t think that… I would have thought that someone like yourself would have had at least one or two partners before me…”_

“No…” Shiro was quickly starting to feel inadequate. Perhaps Adam was realizing how terrible Shiro really was in bed and it wasn’t just because he was a Galra? This was not going to end well for him at all. “L-look… I just… I get it. I’m awful. I don’t really know how to balance my free time and my work life very well…”

Adam sighed a little. _“Fine, I guess I accept your apology for now… But this is your only warning.”_

“Fair… Can you please help me with something?”

_“Sure.”_

“... Yurak is trying to court Lance and wants to give him body paint. We don’t have body paint here. I don’t know what would be safe to use on an Altean’s skin, so… Can you help? Please?”

_“I don’t know… We haven’t started trade between planets yet… This could be tricky…”_

“I’ll be grateful if you did.” Said Shiro. “I’ll do whatever you want the next time we meet.”

_“Those are dangerous words Shiro. You shouldn’t say them lightly.”_

“I know…” Said Shiro quietly.

_“Look, I’ll see what I can do… But you better do something nice for me when we meet up again.”_

“Of course.” Said Shiro quickly. “If we meet here I’ll take you somewhere very, very nice.”

_“You better.”_

“Yeah…” Shiro nervously picked at a loose thread on his pants. “Adam, you know I like you, right? I do have feelings for you, I’m just really stupid.”

_“... I know Shiro… I like you too. A lot. That’s why I’m so upset you didn’t call sooner.”_

“I’m sorry… I’ll do better I swear.” He meant it too. He was going to call Adam more often. He was going to be a good… Whatever the hell they were. Boyfriends? Lovers? Partners? He had no idea. He didn’t know what they were supposed to be calling each other at this point. Shiro would be whatever Adam wanted them to be. He cared a lot about him. He wanted to hold him and cuddle him but he… It was going to take a while for borders to be opened up.

_“I know… And I’ll try calling you more too.”_

“Thank you.”

_“Yeah. I’ll go and figure out your body paint situation. Talk to you tomorrow?”_

“Of course. Bye Adam.”

_“Bye Shiro.”_

Shiro hung up and sighed. He needed to be a better person for Adam. Maybe when travel was opened up between their planets he could take a movement or two of his accumulated holidays to go back to Altea? That would be nice.


	14. Body paint

Much to Yurak’s surprise, the body paint came rather quickly. It arrived in the early afternoon the next day. It was in a decent sized jar, and looked kind of like liquid metal. He took the lid off and sniffed it. It kind of smelled like flowers. Weird. Well, if Lance liked body paint then body paint was what he was doing to get.

Yurak put the jar of body paint on Lance’s bedside table. He was happy to see that Lance still had the skull. It made him smile as he happily poked it. Maybe he should scent mark a few of the things in Lance’s room? Just to let other Galra know that he was courting Lance.

Then again Lance might see that as controlling and unpleasant. Yurak didn’t want Lance to think badly of him. He was trying really hard to show Lance that he would be a good partner. It was just hard with the obvious cultural differences. Alteans seemed to be a lot more flashy with everything they did. Fashion over function.

“...” Yurak lightly scented the corner of the bedsheets. He doubted his scent would transfer to Lance, but he still wanted to do it. If Lance was Galra, then Yurak would scent Lance’s cheeks and neck by rubbing his wrists over those places. Lance would probably flip out on him if he tried.

Lance walked into the room and looked a little surprised to see Yurak in his room. “Um, hey?”

Yurak smiled a little and waved at him. “Hey. Have you enjoyed the grounds?”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind going back to the town sometime soon.”

“Of course. Um… Here.” Yurak gestured to the bodypaint. “It’s, um… bodypaint. From Altea.”

“Oh?” Lance walked over and opened the jar. He nodded in approval and put it back down. “This is pretty good quality stuff. Thank you.”

Yurak preened under the praise. Lance liked his courting gift. He liked it. He actually liked it. It made him feel good to get Lance a courting gift he liked. Maybe he could get Lance some more body paint? That made him happy.

Suddenly Lance took the lid off the paint, dipped his finger in, and wiped some on Keith’s hand. It surprised him and Yurak watched the colours quickly dance across his velvet fur. It dried relatively quickly and Lance easily rubbed it off with his thumb. 

“Nice. Works well on fur too.”

Yurak tilted his head slightly. “Hmm?”

“Now I can paint you too.”

“...” Yurak’s fur puffed up. “W-what? Really?”

Lance nodded. “Yep. Just need some paint brushes.”

“I-I’ll go and get some.” Yurak quickly ran out of the room and went to find the elusive paint brushes.

***

Lance wasn’t too sure how he felt about Yurak. He liked him, but he wasn’t sure he liked him that way. However, after they painted each other he would know if they were compatible or not. Altean’s were a very touch driven society.

When Yurak came back he had several paint brushes. “What now?” He asked.

Lance sat on the bed and took his shirt off. He paid no mind to Yurak making a small squeaking noise when he did so. “We paint each other. On Altea, if two people like each other but one of them is unsure we paint each other.”

Yurak looked confused. “I fail to see how this will make us know if we like each other or not.”

“It’s because Altean’s are very touch focused.” Said Lance calmly. “You can tell a lot about someone by how they touch another’s body.”

“... A-alright.” Said Yurak quietly. “Do you want me to paint you first?”

“Let me paint you first so you have an idea of what to do.”

“... Okay. Um… What do I do?”

“Strip to your undergarments and lay on the floor.” Said Lance. He passed Yurak a pillow. “Lay on your stomach.”

Yurak looked down at the pillow and then back up at Lance. “... My undergarments?”

“Is there a problem?”

“No…”

In all honesty, Lance didn’t expect Yurak to comply. But to his credit the Duke did as Lance asked and stripped down to his undergarments before he quickly got on the floor. Lance sat next to him and hummed a little at how awkwardly Yurak was trying to get comfortable on the ground. It was cute.

“Reminds me of when you got smashed at the wedding.” Mused Lance. 

“Yeah…” Muttered Yurak.

Lance ran his hand over Yurak’s back. The dorsal hair along Yurak’s spine was thicker than everywhere else on his body. He noticed how tense Yurak was under his hand. “... Are you okay there Yurak?”

“I-I’m fine…”

“Really?”

“... Galra don’t normally get this intimate with someone until well into the later stages of courting.” Said Yurak quietly. “... B-but Altean’s are intimate with their courting so we will do this.”

“... I admire your dedication.” Lance picked a larger brush, dipped it into the paint, and ran it down Yurak’s spine. The paint easily coated and clung to the Galra’s fur. Mixing with his purple fur it made the paint look more silver and magenta. Against his own skin the paint would appear more bronze or gold.

He very carefully ran the paint brush all the way down to the tip of Yurak’s tail. It looked pretty already. Lance started to paint different patterns across Yurak’s back; swirls, vines, flowers, thorns, and spots. It was a little hard with the fur, but he was doing a decent job of it.

“Body paint isn’t just for decoration.” Said Lance calmly. “It can tell a story, show a deep bond between others, and show lovers how they would be treated through the relationship. This part of courting comes from an old Altean legend.”

“What kind of legend?” Asked Yurak. 

“The legend of Nir and Silbe.” Lance looked through the paint brushes. “Nir was an Altean Queen and Silbe was her concubine. Silbe said to be a beautiful woman with hair like gold and eyes like rubies. Queen Nir and Silbe were deeply in love, but back then love between same sex couples between royalty was frowned upon since it couldn’t produce an hair to the throne. People also couldn’t believe that Nir could love Silbe more than her male lovers. So Silbe and Nir took to painting each other in fine and intricate art. Every day it was a new design. To paint each design they would need to spend varga’s together.”

“Huh… What happened to them?”

“In legend? Queen Nir died after her first child and Silbe painted her body one last time before she was laid to rest.” Said Lance. “But what actually happened was Queen Nir passed away after her third child, the birth was complicated. But Silbe did paint her body one last time. No one else but her could do it. After that it became a tradition to paint or partners.”

“That sounds nice.” Said Yurak quietly. “Galra are… We don’t normally touch people like this unless we are ready to… Um… be more intimate…”

“You mean sex?”

“Yeah…” Said Yurak quietly. “Touching someone like this is… I’d only be expected to be touched like this by a parent when I was a small kit and needed them to look after me, or a physician when I became sick… This is very… It’s odd… But if you need to do this then I’ll do it.”

Lance raised an eyebrow and started to wave his hand over the paint to try and dry it faster. “I see… Well you can roll over now. I want to paint your chest and stomach now.”

“... Okay…” Yurak slowly rolled over and Lance continued to paint him. He seemed very nervous. It was kind of funny and kind of endearing. 

He appreciated how much Yurak was willing to go for him. From this he got a feel of what kind of lover Yurak might be. He’d be a nervous lover. Unsure of his actions, but eager to please. Lance smiled a little to himself as he ran the paint brush across Yurak’s stomach and dipped into his belly button. Yurak’s stomach quivered a little at the contact. Lance continued to paint him. He painted up along Yurak’s neck, face and arms. He then happily painted along Yurak’s legs. Lance thought it was one of his best works yet.

“Okay, all done.” Said Lance happily. “Want to see what you look like in the mirror?”

“Um, okay…” Said Yurak meekly. He slowly got up and walked over to the mirror and looked very surprised at himself. He looked very surprised, almost mesmerised at the silver and magenta colouring on his fur. “Wow… And you want me to paint you like this?”

Lance shrugged. “I don’t expect you to paint me like that. I’ve been practicing for years. Painting intricate patterns is something I can do quite easily at this point. The point of doing this isn’t to make the most beautiful patterns, but to have fun with it and to touch each other in an intimate, but non sexual way. So come on Yurak, paint me.”

Lance stripped down to his undergarments and laid down on the floor. A few ticks later Yuran was kneeling by him and awkwardly grabbed the paintbrush and the body paint. “... So, you’re not going to be upset if it doesn’t look as good as what you did?”

“Go ahead. I don’t mind”

“... Okay.” With one of the thicker brushes he painted quick dashes down Lance’s spine. It felt a little odd when Yurak was doing it. He didn’t know what Yurak would paint on him, but it would be interesting to see the designs that a Galra would come up with. “Oh, it’s gold?”

“Yeah?”

“It looks kind of silver on me?”

“It’s colour shift body paint.” Said Lance. “It changes depending on your skin tone or hair colour, if we get it in our hair.”

“Huh… Alright…” Yurak continued to paint broad strokes across Lance’s body. Though he seemed to be very hesitant to try and paint any lower than Lance’s hips, even though Lance’s undergarments hung very low on his hips. More than enough room for him to paint.

After what felt like forever Yurak got Lance to roll over and he started to paint the rest of his body. It gave Lance the opportunity to get a good look at how Yurak worked. He really seemed to like working with large strokes. He didn’t seem very fond of the finer brushes that Lance had used on Yurak’s body.

“... Is this okay?” Asked Yurak as he gingerly held Lance’s hand. He was in the middle of painting each of Lance’s fingers. “Am I doing it right?”

“You’re doing just fine.” Said Lance in a reassuring manner. “It looks good.”

“Really? It’s not nearly as nice as what you did for me…”

Lance shrugged. “I like it. It’s pretty.”

“Really? It’s not nearly as intricate…” He muttered. “I don’t have as much experience doing these kinds of things.”

“It’s fine.” Reassured Lance. “Really… So what things would you do if we were courting the Galra way? Like, what would be the equivalent?”

Yurak’s fur puffed up a little and he quickly looked away. “Oh… It um… Since we have gotten so close right now we would probably be scenting each other…”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Scenting? Like an animal?”

“... We have scent glands in our wrists.” Said Yurak quietly. “We rub our wrists together to stimulate them and we’d rub our wrists on each other’s neck and cheeks… But we don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. It’s probably weird for an Altean…”

“And body paint isn’t weird for you?”

“... Well…”

“You can scent me if you want.” 

“Really?” Asked Yurak. He seemed shocked that Lance would be okay with him doing that.

“It’s important to you, right?” Asked Lance. “And um… You’ve put up with Altean courting rituals too so… I trust you.” From his brushstrokes, he could tell Yurak wasn’t good with the fine details, but he was confident in what he did, as long as he got some reassurance. It was sweet. He could possibly see a future with Yurak if they continued to court each other.

“Well, if you’re sure…” Yurak rubbed his wrists together a few times before he lightly rubbed them against Lance’s neck and he lightly pressed them against his cheeks. This close to Lance’s nose he could smell something distinctly musky and kind of like mild smoke? It wasn’t bad, but it was certainly distinct.

“... So you just scented me, right?”

Yurak nodded as his ears quickly drooped. “Yeah… It was too much too soon, wasn’t it? It’s very… It’s too intimate…”

Lance chuckled and gently held his hand. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. I don’t mind. So what does scenting mean?”

Yurak’s tail nervously flicked around. “W-well… Sometimes parents will scent their kits before going out to make sure they don’t get lost, or as a way of identifying them if they get lost… Between adults it’s a way of saying that we are together and courting each other… and that they shouldn’t try and approach you with the intent of courting you…”

“Ah, I see. Interesting.”

There was a knock at the door and both of them jumped in surprise. “Yes?” Called Yurak.

The door cracked open slightly. “Duke Yurak? You’re in there?”

“Yes, I am in here with Lance.” He said.

“Ah, yes. Very good. I came to inform you that your mother has stopped by for an impromptu visit.”

“...” Yurak started cursing under his breath. “Tell her I’ll be down in a few ticks.”

“Very good sir.” They closed the door and Yurak quickly got up and scrambled to pull his tunic back on.

“Is everything okay?” Asked Lance. “Is there something wrong with your mother being here?”

Yurak sighed. “I never know why she has turned up. If she comes here without mentioning it beforehand it’s likely that something bad has happened or something good happened… I have no idea until I talk to her… I don’t think she knows you are here...”

“Is this going to be a problem?”

“I don’t know.” Said Yurak. “Put some clothes on… If the body paint is dry.”

“Okay… Guess it’s time to meet the inlaws?”

“Yeah… This is going to be interesting…”


	15. Mother

Lance awkwardly followed Yurak down the stairs and to the sitting room. He wondered if he should have maybe washed off the body paint? He wasn’t sure. They entered the sitting room and Lance saw a woman drinking from a mug in a plush chair.

The woman had short hair and wore good quality hunting leathers. Her facial features were very similar to Yurak’s, so this was definitely his mother. When they entered the room, the woman put down her mug and gave the two a confused look. Not that Lance could blame her. She probably didn’t expect Yurak to be wearing body paint and or an Altean to be there in the Duke’s house.

Thankfully she momentarily ignored him to greet her son. The two of them gripped each other’s forearms and pulled each other into a hug. They very briefly touched their foreheads together before pulling apart.

“Mother.” Said Yurak. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“It’s nice to see you too Yurak.” She said softly. “So, what’s with all of this?” She asked as she gestured to his face and arms.”

Yurak’s fur puffed up in embarrassment. “Um… Altean thing… Speaking of, I would like to introduce you to someone.” He gestured for Lance to come forward. “Mother, this is Lance. He’s an Altean I met at Lotor’s wedding. He’s part of Allura’s entourage, but Allura said he could come here.”

Lance bowed at her. “Pleasure to meet you. Of the few times Yurak has spoken of you, he has spoken quite highly.”

The woman raised an eyebrow, seemingly amused by this. “Oh? Well, it is nice to meet you Lance. I am Krolia the decapitator. You may just call me Krolia.”

Lance nodded and held out his hand to shake hers. “Charmed.”

“Likewise.” She gripped him by his forearm and pulled him close. She leaned in a little close and sniffed him. Lance just froze up. He was hyper aware of the sharpness of her claws digging into his skin. She pulled back and dropped Lance’s arm. She then looked over at Yurak and raised an eyebrow. “You scented him?”

Yurak suddenly appeared nervous. “We um… We’re in the middle of courting each other…” He said quietly. “Body paint is part of Altean courting…”

She seemed shocked. “I’m sorry. I think I misheard you. Did you say you two were courting?”

“It isn’t that weird…” Muttered Yurak.

Krolia looked very conflicted. “Well yes, but no… I mean… While Galra becoming mates with other races isn’t unusual or frowned upon it is… I mean we’ve kind of been at war for a while? Becoming intimate with the enemy so soon…”

“Lotor married Allura.” Pointed out Yurak.

“Because that was set as soon as the genders of both royal babies was found out.” Said Krolia. “That and it was the quickest way to end the war… But I digress. This is-”

“Are you disapproving of our courtship?” Asked Yurak.

Lance slowly backed out of the room. He really didn’t know how to deal with this or what to do, so he just left. “Well, you two seem to need to do some catching up.” He said. “I um… I’m going to go down to the kitchen and um… Maybe see if they, um, can… bring us more drinks? Yeah. That… Be back in a tick.” He quickly got out of there and headed in the vague direction of the kitchen. He didn’t need to deal with this Galra drama.

***

When Lance was gone, Yurak couldn’t help but bare his fangs at his mother. “Why did you have to say that? He’s going to think you hate him now! You don’t even know him!”

Krolia huffed and crossed her arms. “I wasn’t trying to be dismissive of Alteans. I was simply saying that it’s a little awkward for someone to be involved with an Altean so soon after the war. That is all. The marriage between the Prince and Princess was more of a political move. You know that. You even said that to Lotor. You told him that if he was having second thoughts about it you’d hijack a ship and take him somewhere else.”

“... Yes.” Said Yurak. “But in my defence I didn’t know that Lotor and Allura had a history together before the war. I didn’t really grow up around Lotor did I? It was just me and my father out in our small hunting shack…”

His mother sighed, clearly not wanting to have this conversation right now. “Yurak. I am not dismissing your courtship. You may court whoever you please. I will not discourage that. I’m more worried about the cultural differences and unease that will come with courting an Altean… Do you like him?”

“Yes. I like him a lot.” Said Yurak. “Courting has gone well I think…” He said quietly. “Their way of courting is very… Physical and seems a little superficial? They are like zubzub and flitter around randomly gravitating towards shiny things.”

Krolia shrugged. “They do seem a little… Yes, superficial is probably the right word.”

“Yeah, anyway, why are you here?” He asked.

“I came to catch up with you after the wedding.” She said calmly. “I didn’t expect you to bring home your own bride.”

Yurak’s fur puffed up even more. Most of his fur was stuck down due to the paint, so it probably looked ridiculous. “I didn’t bring home a bride! We are in the middle of courting! Body painting and physical touching is a big part of Altean courtship! Especially right at the start!”

“Right at the start?” Krolia went from amused to alarmed. “Yurak… How many partners has this Altean bedded?”

Yurak wanted to pull his hair out. “It doesn’t matter! Probably a few! Alteans seem like the kind of people that jump into each other's beds early on in a courtship. It might even be part of their courtship.” 

Saying that out loud, Yurak found that it made him feel uneasy. Logically, sex was a natural part of life nothing to be ashamed of. However, culturally, having multiple sexual partners was frowned upon. For a Galra, during orgasm a lot of hormones are released in the brain to help bond them with their partners and help them fall in love. Of course they didn’t necessarily mate for life, and Galra can and usually do have several partners… But having more than three sexual partners (depending on how old the Galra is) was very alarming and most would assume there was something disturbingly wrong with.

“... Look. Alteans are a different species.” He said calmly, trying to reassure herself and himself. “Even if it is part of it I… I really like Lance quite a lot, and I think he likes me… We’re doing courting stuff together...”

Krolia put her hand on Yurak’s shoulder and gave him a stern look. “Yurak. Do not do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Putting yourself into situations that cause you anxiety and stress just because it’s something they want you to do is not right. If Lance attempts to force himself upon you, kill him.”

“That seems a little extreme…”

“The law states if a sober Galra forces themselves in a way that violates your bodily autonomy you can take their lives. If they are drunk you might get in trouble if you kill him…” She thought for a moment. “Just knock him out and tie him up. Okay?”

“... Yes mother.” He muttered. Yurak didn’t think that Lance would try and force himself on him. Though the body painting thing made him really, really uncomfortable. The last time someone had touched him like that was when he saw a chiropractor from falling out of a tree while hunting. It was uncomfortable for him too. He’d need to talk to Lance about courting practices so there wasn’t anymore major culture shock.

Krolia looked over at the door. “... Well, I’m going to go and find Lance to have a talk with him.”

“What?! No!” Before Yurak could stop her, his mother was out the door and off to find Lance. Yurak sighed in annoyance. “Damn it… Good luck Lance… You’re going to need it…”

***

Krolia quickly found Lance standing by the door that leads outside via the kitchens. “Hello Lance.”

Lance yelped in shock and almost dropped his datapad. “Oh hey! Hi. Nice to see you again Krolia. Are you… Do you want me to come back inside?”

“No. Follow me.” She gestured for Lance to follow her and smiled slightly when the Altean shuffled behind her. They walked into the garden, and when they were far enough away from the house and other people, she started talking. “So Lance…”

“Yes?”

“You were old enough to fight in the war against us. Correct?”

Lance nodded. “Technically yes, but I didn’t.”

This… Krolia did not like this. “Why? A medical problem? Are you a medic on your planet and your skills were needed at home?” She asked. “Were you able to pay your way out of it?”

Lance quickly shook his head. “Oh no. Nothing like that. I um, you see I am the court jester. I asked King Alfor himself if I should pick up a sword and he told me to stay in court.”

Krolia stopped walking and stared at Lance in disbelief. “A jester?”

Lance nodded. “Y-yeah. I also go by royal fool, royal jester, court fool, fool, and that weirdo that just threw himself out of the tower when Lord Biroz started talking about his land taxes for the millionth time… The last one is kind of long.” He laughed nervously.

He was a fool. The man was a fool. Yurak was in the middle of courting a fool. The Altran’s court jester. This was not the inlaw Krolia thought her son would try courting. Yurak was a Duke for crying out loud. He could easily court someone else from the inner circle of royalty, like a Baron or a Marquess. He could have started courting a warlord, or a soldier. But Lance… He wasn’t even a soldier where he came from. This was… It was extremely disappointing.

“I see…”

Lance’s shoulders slumped and looked up at her sheepishly. “I’m guessing I’m not good inlaw material?”

“Yes… You would be correct.” She said calmly. “Yurak is a Duke and has fought in the war. There are expectations and well… I must confess I am a little old school and do not know much about Altean culter. Maybe being a fool is well respected where you are from? But here it’s not that impressive. Quite low when it comes to possible suitors for a Duke.”

Lance started to look rather annoyed. “Hey, first of all, he started courting me first. I didn’t throw myself at him and tried to bed him the second I saw him.”

Hearing that made Krolia’s hair stand on end. She glared at him and bared her fangs. “Have you bedded my son?”

The Altean went a little pale. “N-no… I-I’m just saying I didn’t seduce him. He chose to pursue me on his own.”

It took a few ticks, but Krolia quickly composed herself. “He has stated as much… What are the sexual habits of Alteans?”

The blue scales on Lance’s cheeks exploded with bright light. “Excuse me?! W-what is-”

“This is very important.” Said Krolia calmly. “Galra are more conservative when it comes to picking our sexual partners. The more partners we have the less desirable they are seen as in the eyes of other Galras.”

“So, slut shaming?” Asked Lance.

Krolia raised an eyebrow in confusion. “We do not have that word here.”

“A slut is someone that sleeps around a lot without getting paid for it.”

“Prostituation without monetary or a goods exchange?”

“Pretty much.”

“Huh… Anyway, in our society someone that has many sexual partners is seen as broken and incapable of being able to form bonds with partners.” She stated. “Medically, this is because glands in the brain that release hormones that helps us bond to our partners. This gland also releases hormones that help regulate our libido. If it is functioning abnormally then it can lead to… Rather unpleasant crimes.”

Lance frowned a little and gave her a mildly disgusted look. “So… are you saying that Altean’s are sexual deviants?”

“I am trying to tell you that if you have had a lot of sexual partners it won’t be seen as a good thing. It will reflect very poorly on you and Yurak. Especially because of Yurak’s social status. I do not know what Altean’s consider an appropriate or acceptable number of… partners… But the less there are, the better.”

“Sex isn’t that important to Alteans.” Said Lance. “Well, it is but it isn’t. We mostly do it for fun. To have a good time. All that stuff. When we are committed to someone we don’t sleep around anymore.”

“Does this mean you are taking Yurak’s courtship seriously?” Asked Korlia. “Your courting rituals are strange and probably putting Yurak under a lot of stress.”

“I don’t want him to be stressed.” Muttered Lance. “Look, Altean courtship focuses a lot on physical compatibility and what we can learn from each other through physical intimacy… From what I’ve learned about Yurak so far, he’s very stubborn, but kind. He tries really hard for the people he cares about, but he isn’t overly sappy… And he’s willing to do things the Altean way for me… Which is something I find very attractive.”

“And are you willing to do things the Galra way?” Asked Krolia calmly, but sceptically. “Yurak has scented you, and you’ve accepted his scenting, so you must be ready to accept the next part of Galra courting.”

“... Ummm.”

“Or was everything just talk?” She questioned. “Were you only trying to seduce my son so you could sleep with him and diminish his social status among his fellow Galra?”

Lance looked extremely insulted. “What? No. Look, I know you probably don’t like me because I’m Altean and we were fighting in a war not too long ago, and I’m not a soldier or anything… But I like Yurak and I care about him.”

“Oh really? Are you going to prove it?”

“Yes!”

“Good. Grab a weapon. We’re going hunting.”

“... Wait what?”


	16. Warming up

Lance was 95% sure he was going to die, and 5% sure he was going to get maimed severely. She took Lance to the armoury and grabbed a large battle axe. Lance grabbed the bow again and was practically dragged by the back of his shirt into the wilds. He was quietly freaking out. She was going to probably kill out in the wilds and let some wild animals eat his body. 

Maybe he should have just rejected Yurak’s courting attempts? At least when it came to meeting the parents it was customary to do it at the very end of a courting period when both parties were sure they wanted to be together and go monogamous. Also, it was meant to be a grand dinner thing too. Like a welcome to the family kind of thing.

But now Lance was back out in the wilds with Krolia, who was taking him into much deeper, more dense parts than Yurak had taken him. He felt like he was constantly being watched by something, which he probably was. This planet was dangerous.

“If it isn’t obvious, I do not approve of your courtship.” Said Krolia suddenly.

“Never would have guessed.” Said Lance sarcastically.

“... Sarcasm is unbecoming of you.” Said Krolia calmly. “Anyway, I hope you do not find it disrespectful for me to say that. It isn’t uncommon for parents to disapprove of those their kits are trying to court. We always want what is best for them and do not want our kits to just settle for someone we do not believe is worthy of them. As such you can see that disapproval is common.”

“Guessing you don’t want your son to be with a fool?”

Krolia nodded. “Yes. I would prefer my son be courting someone with battle experience. Someone that can handle themselves. They need to be able to protect themselves and their new family. You’re not someone I can just begrudgingly approve of for the sake of keeping peace with my son.”

“Right…” Muttered Lance. He kind of figured that Krolia would be like that. He would just need to show her that he was a good hunter or something? That sounded about right… Maybe? Killing something would probably impress her. Hopefully it wouldn’t be anything too difficult. But he doubted that.

“Don’t get me wrong, if you can prove yourself I will accept you two courting… I don’t know if your species is close with your parents, but Galra are very close with their familial packs. Yurak’s very important to me and I want what is best for him.”

“I know… I want what’s best for Yurak too.” Said Lance. “But he’s already proven he’s going to be a good partner and lover by Altean standards.”

“... Lover?”

“Through physical touch.” Said Lance quickly. “We didn’t… Okay, sex and physical connections are very important to Alteans, but I know that Galra aren’t as physically open to that… But I’m more than happy to negate that part of our courting for Yurak’s sake. Just doing some of our courting rituals is good enough for me. I’m okay with compromising.”

“I see…” Muttered Krolia. “What other courting rituals will you subject my son to?”

Lance thought for a moment. There were several sexual things they probably wouldn’t be able to do just because of their aversion to getting too physical too quickly, but there were still a few physically intimate things they could do.

“Well… If I can get my hands on some massage oils I wouldn’t mind doing that.” Said Lance.

“Massages?” Questioned Krolia. “We do know of the therapeutic benefits of such a practice, but it is usually just for the purposes of recovery… How have you Altean’s twisted this practice into something sexual?”

Lance pouted and kicked at some rocks. “It’s not meant to be sexual, though it can become sexual… It’s more about touch and seeing how our partners will touch us and make us feel special… Touching and physical intimacy is very important to Alteans, and if I’m willing to go and do this hunting thing to make you less unhappy about me getting courted by Yurak, I think he can put up with getting a massage or giving me a massage.”

“Right…” She seemed very doubtful. “Anyway, let’s continue on…” 

The two of them walked until Krolia held up her hand to make Lance stop walking. She pointed to a tree trunk. It just seemed like a tree trunk to him until some large insect flew by. A shape on the tree truck shifted and changed colour. It’s mouth snapped open and it quickly ate the insect.

Lance yelped in shock and jumped backwards. “W-what was that?”

“A krilly.” She said calmly. “A large reptilian that ambushes their prey by camouflaging on trees for movements at a time. They are pretty dangerous and you have to be careful. They won’t hesitate to bite off your leg or arm if you get in biting distance.” 

“... A lot of dangerous things here, huh?”

She shrugged. “To you maybe, but that is very mild compared to many of the other animals that live on our planet. You see-” Before she could finish talking, Krolia got tackled by a large beast with dark green fur, claws and fangs. “BASTARD!” She yelled at the creature as she held it back with the handle of her battle axe.

Lance quickly shot an arrow at the beast, but he fumbled slightly and it didn’t stick. He cursed, took a tight hold of an arrow, and quickly ran over and jumped onto the beast. The creature grunted and shook slightly, but otherwise ignored him. Lance firmly gripped the creature’s head and slammed the pointy part of the arrow into the animal’s ear and into its brain.

The creature yelped and jumped off Krolia. It wandered around in a staggered way. Clearly in pain. Krolia quickly threw her battle axe at it and embedded it in the creature’s skull. The animal dropped dead.

Both just stood there in silence for a few ticks before Krolia got up and retrieved her axe. “Um… Thanks for that.”

“No problem… Would hope you’d do the same for me.”

“Yeah…” Things had suddenly become very awkward between them. Krolia was clearly embarrassed by what had just happened. “Um… If you keep your mouth shut about this, I’ll show you some of Yurak’ baby photos.”

Lance grinned. “Hmm? What are you talking about? I was clearly about to get attacked and you saved me from getting killed.”

The corner of Krolia’s mouth twitched into a slight smile. She took out her datapad and started to look through her photos. She pulled up a picture of a very grumpy looking Galra baby in a red jumpsuit. Their face was chubby, but their eyes were full of mischief and anarchy… and possibly arson.

Lance couldn’t help but coo over it. “That’s little baby Yurak? He’s so cute!”

“He was just three deca-phoebs old.” Said Krolia. “He was quite a handful. By his second birthday he had taught himself how to vomit on command to get attention… That and he tried to rip the tendons out of the legs of anyone that walked past him. His baby fangs fell out after about six deca-phoebes.”

“... He’s adorable.” Said Lance. “I want to squish those chubby cheeks of his.”

“His cheeks were chubby in that photo because he stuffed his mouth with couch stuffing.”

“... Baby. And look at how big his paws are, and his ears are so naked!”

“We tend to be relatively bald on most of our bodies until we reach ten deca-phoebes. Isn’t he cute?”

“He’s so adorable. I love him. Babies are so cute! I love them!”

***

While things were progressing well with Yurak and Lance, things were a little more difficult with Shiro and Adam. The distance was still a bit much for them, though they were talking everyday. Shiro was sending small trinkets to Adam. Though he wasn’t sure if he was getting them. He wasn’t too sure what Altea’s customs was like when it came to bones and teeth. Hopefully he could visit him soon. He missed the Altean, and the distance was clearly grating on Adam’s nerves too.

 _“So how is the weather?”_ Adam asked Shiro. They were having what Adam called, a video date. They were both cooking and were going to eat together. It was something Shiro wasn’t used to, mainly the cooking part, but it was interesting.

Shiro was cooking a fish based dish while Adam was cooking a vegetarian based one. “The weather has been very nice. Not too hot and not too cold. How is Altea?”

 _“Winter is coming in a movement.”_ Said Adam as he added chopped vegetables to a pan. _“It’s good weather for couples… Staying inside, sitting by the fire, enjoying warm drinks together…”_

“I hate the cold weather.” Said Shiro. “I always get frost on my tail when I go outside.”

_“Hmm, yes… I have been wondering about your tails.”_

“Yeah?”

_“Why did some of you have them and others don’t?_

Shiro looked down at his tail for a moment before he shrugged and continued to scale his fish. “Tails are a recessive trait. Same with reptilian plates and scales. About 35% of the population has tails… For a few deca-phoebs it was a cosmetic choice to dock the tail of a kit when they were born. It fell out of fashion relatively quickly. Some people still do it, but it’s not the norm here.”

 _“Huh, interesting… I never would have guessed.”_ Adam poured something into the frypan and there was a flash of flames.

“Are you okay there?”

 _“Yeah, I’m good. It’s meant to do that.”_ Adam gently stirred his food around in the pan for a few minutes before he let out a long, sad, sigh.

“... Are you okay?” Asked Shiro quietly.

 _“The distance.”_ He muttered. _“I hate it.”_

“I don’t like it either.” Said Shiro sadly. His ears drooped and Shiro placed the skinned fish into a pot. “I have asked around and I’ve heard word that casual travel might be allowed soon.”

_“How soon is soon?”_

“I don’t know…” Admitted Shiro. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to-”

 _“You haven’t done anything wrong.”_ Assured Adam. _“Alteans prefer their potential partners and lovers to be at arm’s length most of the time. I want to be next to you.”_ Said Adam. _“I want to hold you, touch you, run my fingers through your hair… Just have you around me. I want you. I need you.”_

“I need you too Adam.” Said Shiro quietly. “I didn’t… I want you here with me. I want to go back to Altea… I don’t care where we are, as long as I’m with you… Um, what are you cooking again?”

 _“A simple vegetable dish.”_ Said Adam as he threw a handful of spices into the pan. _“Nothing overly fancy. Just didn’t feel like eating meat tonight. It’s a little salty, but it’s usually eaten with butter and flat bread.”_ Adam held up a round thing. Probably this flat bread he was talking about. _“What about you?”_

“Um… Fish soup.” Said Shiro. “Well, more like a stew… But it um… It’s mostly meat… Some kelp… muscles, clams… It’s also salty.”

Adam chuckled. _“Ah, great minds think alike… You making dessert after this?”_

“Galra don’t taste sweetness the same way Altean’s do.” Said Shiro. “Some of us find that sweetness actually tastes bitter. I happen to be one of those people.”

_“Really?”_

“Yep. Eating fruit is weird. I hated it when I was a kit. I’d always pretend to eat it so my parents would give me meat.” He happily stirred his pot a few times and added a few more spices. “Meat is good.”

 _“Hmm, you do love your meat.”_ Purred Adam. _“I know how much you love Altean meat.”_

Shiro’s fur puffed up at the mention of his appreciation of Adam’s Altean meat. So Shiro may or may not have played around and teased the absolute hell out of Adam when they got together… He might have been damn confident in the sheets once things heated up, but out of the bedroom, Shiro was nervous about sex and Adam was a damn monster. Probably an Altaen thing.

“I um… The food on Altea is very nice.” Said Shiro as he tried to stop his fur from puffing up anymore than it already was. 

Adam chuckled and put a lid on his food. What Shiro was cooking was going to take a little longer than his. _“You know what I mean Shiro… Also, I haven’t quite forgiven you for not warning me that Galra have knots.”_

“I did warn you.” Grumbled Shiro.

_“Yeah, about the first one. Not the second one.”_

“... In my defence I did say knots… Not knot.” He would have mentioned how Adam didn’t seem to mind at all at the time, but he’d probably die of embarrassment if he did.

_“Well… Okay, fair. If animals have knots on our planet it’s just the one. Not two.”_

“... It’s kind of unique to Galra, and some of our evolutionary ancestors.” Muttered Shiro.

_“Why the hell do you need two knots?”_

“To really make sure our partner gets pregnant?” Suggested Shiro. “I’m not sure…”

_“Galra anatomy is strange.”_

“... Your face markings glowed and changed colour for a few ticks when you came.”

_“... Okay, we’re both really weird.”_

Shiro smiled a little. “Yeah, we are… As soon as I know I can visit you I will.”

 _“I’d like that… I wouldn’t mind visiting you either.”_ Said Adam. _“Send me your address soon?”_

“Of course… Um, also, is there some kind of handbook…”

_“Handbook?”_

“Yeah, about Altean courting rituals…”

 _“...”_ Adam chuckled and grinned. _“I’ll send you a children’s textbook.”_

“Thank you.” Said Shiro quietly. “I’ll um… I’ll send you some material about Galra courting too?”

_“Thank you. That would be very nice.”_

Shiro smiled and continued to cook with Adam. If he did send him a textbook, he would copy relevant pages and hand them over to Yurak. Knowing the Duke he would have no idea what he was doing and even if he kind of did, he really, really didn’t. He’d stress himself into some kind of fit if he didn’t get some kind of help.


	17. Stress

After Lance and Krolia came back from the wilds, she was a little more accepting of their courting, but did threaten to remove Lance’s reproductive parts with a rusty nail if he did anything to Yurak. Yurak had no idea what was going on, but he was glad that his mother and Lance seemed to be on good terms.

Later that evening, Yurak washed the body paint off his fur. It made him feel bad to wash away such a beautiful design, but it made his fur feel weird, so he needed to clean himself. He was nice to feel clean again. Once he was cleaned and dried he went back to his room. Lance was there. He too had cleaned himself up so he was no longer wearing body paint.

Yurak had asked Lance if he wanted to sleep in the same bed as him since they were courting each other. It seemed like it might be the next step they should take. Lance seemed to be all for it since he was there, right now… in his night clothes.

He smiled up at Yurak. “You feeling better now?”

“Yeah… I think I got all the paint off… A lot of the servants were giving me odd looks.” Said Yurak as he got into bed.

“They thought it was weird, didn’t they?” Asked Lance.

Yurak nodded. The body paint thing was such an odd thing to the Galra in general. No one really got it, but just accepted it as some kind of off Altean thing. Yurak still thought it was weird, but he was happy that it meant that they were getting closer together. He moved a little closer to Lance and sniffed him a little. 

Lance smelled like flowers. But it was a soft smell. Kind of earthy too. Yurak liked it. Smelled like Lance. The Altean raised an eyebrow as he looked at him. “Um… What are you doing there buddy?”

“Sniffing you.” Said Yurak. “You smell nice.”

Lance blushed a little and smiled. “Thanks? I just used some soap and body wash.”

“It smells nice.” Said Yurak quietly. “So… What happened when you went off with my mother?”

“Krolia took me to the wilds to hunt.”

“... She what?” Asked Yurak in shock. “Are you serious? She shouldn’t have done that! You’re not a hunter! Heck, we don’t even let kits go out in there alone! You don’t know what is out there!”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Relax, we both came back fine… And I got to see some baby photos, so I won.”

The Duke could feel dread forming in the pit of his stomach. “... What do you mean baby photos?”

“Krolia showed me some cute baby photos of a certain baby Galra in a little red jumpsuit.”

“...” Yurak hid under the covers and put a pillow over his head. Hopefully he would suffocate and kill himself. His parents only seemed to take photos of him when he was doing something stupid and embarrassing. Like eating couch stuffing or when he thought it was a good idea to cover himself in mud. It was all well and good until he got out of the mad and it set like a rock. He was hissing an absolute rage for vargas after he was cleaned. Mostly because he was cleaned. He didn’t like getting wet when he was little.

Lance chuckled and lightly poked his arm. “Come on. It was cute. Your baby photos were adorable. I liked the one where you had some animal hanging out of your mouth.”

“Krolia told you the story behind that one, didn’t she?”

“They wouldn’t let you have a pet and you put a frog that secretes hallucinogens in your mouth to try and sneak it onto your house. You were off your tits for a movement.”

“... I am going no contact with her for telling you that.”

“You’re overly dramatic.” Lance sighed and lied down next to him. 

Yurak paused for a moment before he peeked out from behind his pillow. Lance was still there and he was smiling at him. Their closeness was making Yurak’s fur puff up again. He was so close and so pretty, and his skin looked so smooth. He wanted to touch him, but was that okay? He still wasn’t sure what Lance wanted or would expect from him in this circumstance. 

“Not overly dramatic… It’s embarrassing.” He muttered. “I… Just… It’s embarrassing.”

Lance chuckled and smiled at him. “We all do embarrassing things as babies. I put a rock up my nose when I was a baby.”

“... Really?”

“Yep. Hurt a lot, and hurt more when the doctor had to pull it out.” Said Lance. “... Then I shoved the same rock but up the same nostril.”

“Ah…”

Lance shrugged. “I was not a very smart child.”

“Agreed… Children are dumb.”

“Yep...” Lance hummed a little and slowly pulled the pillow away from Yurak’s face. He smiled softly at him and it made Yurak’s heart race in his chest. Why was he looking at him like that? Should they kiss? Kissing probably came before having sex with Altean’s right? It came first before doing anything too intimate with Galra too.

Yurak quickly leaned forward and lightly pressed his lips against Lance’s. He was pretty sure Altean’s knew what kissing was. Lotor and Allura did it at their wedding and he had seen a few couples doing it on Altea, so Lance would be okay with that. Right? Alteans wouldn’t have sex before kissing, right?

He moved his head back a little, but Lance quickly chased after him and pressed his lips more firmly against Yurak’s. The Galra knew the fur all over his body puffed up like crazy. He could feel Lance running his fingers over his shoulder and gently squeezing his biceps. Yurak didn’t really know what to do with his hands, but he awkwardly reached out and his hands ended up on Lance’s chest and hip. That seemed like the right move.

Lance pulled back slightly and smiled at him. “You wanna have some fun?”

“...” If Yurak’s fur was any longer he would have been a really big puff ball by now. “F-fun? Like um… I… Y-you’re not having fun now?”

Lance shrugged. “Well, kissing is fun but he can do a little more if you like?”

Yurak suddenly became very nervous. Maybe sharing sleeping areas meant sex to Altean’s? Sleeping just meant sleeping to him. What did this mean? What was he meant to do? Should he try and initiate something? He didn’t get it.

Lance winced and very carefully moved Yurak’s hands off of him. “Ouch… Sharp claws… Retract them...”

“Sorry!” Yurak quickly let Lance go like he was made of fire. “M-maybe I should go and sleep in the guest room…”

“What? But it’s your room.” Said Lance. “... Did you think I was suggesting sex or something?”

“Well…”

Lance chuckled a little and brushed some hair out of his own face. “Yurak, I wasn’t thinking sex. You’re just so stiff right now and uncomfortable. Want a massage?”

That confused the Duke slightly. He hadn’t pulled a muscle or was injured. “Why would I need one?”

“You’re kind of high strung when you’re around me because you have no idea how to act around Alteans.” Said Lance in a matter of fact kind of way.

“... I’m not high strung… Fine. Give me a massage.”

He rolled onto his stomach and moments later he felt Lance climbing on top of him. His hands were on his shoulders. His hands weren’t nearly as strong as a Galra’s. Alteans tended to be weaker than Galra, but Lance was really leaning into it to get some force behind what he was doing. It felt like a small animal was running across his back.

Yurak sighed and rested his chin against his pillow. What was he even doing? This was moving really fast in his opinion. By now most Galra would be holding hands and hunting together in their courting. Not touching like this. Lance was so intimate. He didn’t like it and it was really grating on his mind and causing him stress.

He wanted to be close to Lance. He wanted to be intimate with him and give him what he needed to make him feel like he was a worthy partner. He wanted to be worthy of Lance. It was stressful. All he knew was that Altean’s needed a lot of touching to take courting seriously. He would just have to suck it up and let it happen.

He gasped a little when he felt Lance pressing hard against his spine. “Dude, you have so many knots in your back. You need more massages.”

“M-massages are therapeutic.” Mumbled Yurak. “Only when you get injured…”

“I know. Krolia mentioned that…” Lance sighed and pressed his hands flat against Yurak’s back. “Yurak… I know that you aren’t used to this, and you probably think I have expectations, but I don’t. If you’re uncomfortable with this, then you need to tell me. I know Galra aren’t as touch orientated as Alteans. If you need me to, or want me to stop I will.”

“... S-stop… Please…”

Lance got off his back and sat next to him. “Are we moving too fast for you?”

“... I don’t want to do something and have you expect me to do something else.” Muttered Yurak. “I… I’m sorry… I mean, I don’t even know anything about Altean biology, other than where I need to stab you to kill you… So I wouldn’t even know how to please you when we get that far… If we get that far… You’ll probably eventually tell me to stop being so… I believe your people use the term prudish?”

Lance sighed and gently ran his fingers through Yurak’s hair. It felt nice. “Yurak… Don’t make yourself uncomfortable just because you think this is what I want… I’ll go back to the guest room tonight.”

He stood up to leave, but Yurak felt kind of panicked. What if this was the end of their courting? What if this meant Lance was done with him? He didn’t want that. He quickly reached out for Lance and held his wrist as he got to the edge of the bed.

“No, wait!” He said quickly. “Lance, please don’t go… Please…” He didn’t want him to go, but he didn’t really know how to voice that. Anything he could think of died on his tongue before he could vocalise it. But he did manage to squeak out a few words. “Stay with me tonight… Please?”

It didn’t take much convincing for Lance to fall back into Yurak’s bed. However they weren’t as close as they were before. Yurak felt like he had done something wrong, even if Lance didn’t say it was him, he knew it was because of him. He made things weird. He rolled onto his side facing away from Lance. He didn’t like how this was turning out.

He suddenly felt Lance’s arms wrap around him. “Lance?”

“Shush.” Muttered Lance. “You’re stressed… Just let me hold you… And I’m trying to be comforting here. I don’t care as much about sex as you think I do. I just want you to be happy… Courting isn’t meant to be stressful. It’s meant to be fun.”

Yurak knew that Lance was right, but how could Lance not stress? He was Galran and Lance was Altean. They weren’t the same. They were really different. Both in terms of culture and physiology. 

“...I’ll give you a crash course in Altean biology if you give me a crash course in Galra biology?”

“Deal.”

“Good.” Lance took one of Yurak’s wrists and rubbed it against his neck. “There. Now I’ve been scented. Let’s get some sleep.”

Yurak didn’t have the heart to tell him that his scent glands weren’t stimulated enough to scent him. But he appreciated Lance trying. That small gesture calmed him enough to make him feel a little better. He hadn’t messed up. Lance still liked him enough to try and get him to scent him. This was a really good sign. They’d talk more tomorrow.


	18. Basic biology

Yurak felt awkward as fuck. After talking with Lance they had spent the morning thinking of questions to ask the other about their species. Nothing was off limits and it was making him really, really uncomfortable. He had written down a few things that wanted to know about Altean biology;

_1\. How many stomachs do you have?_   
_2\. How well can you see in the dark?_   
_3\. Can you get pregnant?_   
_4\. Do you experience heats?_   
_5\. How quickly do you heal from bites and scratches?_

It seemed like a good list. It was simple, asked general stuff about Alteans, and some more… sexual stuff… He sighed heavily and shook his head. He didn’t want Lance to think he was just interested in sex, or that he wasn’t interested in it either. He just… He wanted Lance to think he was a decent guy that wasn’t afraid of sex.

He sat down on a chair in the sitting room. His tail nervously flicked left and right as he wondered if Lance would get mad at him for asking something too personal… Like, what if pregnancy was a huge taboo thing and Lance got offended? He would feel horrible if he made Lance feel horrible.

Yurak made a small distressed sound and quickly downed his drink. It wasn’t alcoholic, but it should have been. He needed something to calm his nerves a little. Before he could go and raid his liquor cabinet Lance waltzed in and plopped down on the couch opposite him. He had datapad out with a list written out.

“Alright. You have your questions?”

“Um, yeah…” Said Yurak quietly. “How do you want to do this?”

Lance shrugged. “You ask a question and then I ask a question?”

Yurak nodded and looked down at his list. “I um...O-okay… How many stomachs do you have?”

“Just one.” Said Lance. “However we have two livers which is why it is quite hard to poison us.”

“Oh, that’s pretty interesting.”

“Yeah. My turn, right?” Asked Lance. Yurak quickly nodded. “Okay, so… How good is your sense of smell? Like, do you use scents to tell you different things? Like a secret second language?”

Hearing that question made Yurak relax a little. This was good. Nothing crazy. Lance didn’t ask him about his dick or anything. That would have been kind of awkward for him. “Okay, so we can smell subtle differences in someone’s scent markings. It’s a little hard to explain, but we can tell the subtle differences between scentings… Like, we have a general idea of the age and gender of someone and if they are distressed. That’s all.”

Lance nodded a little as he heard of this. “I see… That’s actually pretty interesting.”

“Y-yeah…” Said Yurak quietly. 

He asked Lance some more questions and Lance asked his. Things very slowly became more sexual, but they both knew that would happen. They needed to see if they were physically compatible. Lance had poor eyesight in the dark. Scales and skin on galra was a recessive gene thing and fur and ears was more normal. Theoretically Altean males could get pregnant since they had shapeshifting abilities. Though only a few had the ability to completely change their reproductive organs. Yurak could retract his claws, but not nearly enough to Lance’s living for some reason.

Then Yurak asked about heat cycles. Lance laughed at him when he asked that. Yurak felt so embarrassed and ashamed. Lance told him that Altean’s didn’t have a heats. They could get pregnant at any time. Sure there were periods when they were less fertile, but they could have children whenever.

Yurak was shocked. “Seriously? You can just… Even during frost? Do you even have frost?”

“You mean when things get all cold? Yeah. We call it The Freezing because everything gets covered in ice and stuff.” Said Lance. “Okay, but question. How big are you?” 

“Several feet?”

“What? No I mean… down there. Are you big?” Asked Lance as he gestured towards his crotch.

Yurak blushed and quickly averted his eyes. “Oh… that. I um… Well, it depends…”

“On what?”

“If you’re measuring with the knots or not.”

Lance looked shocked. “Knots? As in… more than one?”

“Y-yeah… Two… The second one is bigger than the first…”

“How? Why?”

Yurak shrugged. “We think it’s just something left over from our ancestors… It can be a little difficult for a woman to get pregnant so the working theory is that it’s just so… you know… They definitely get pregnant? I don’t know… I don’t know too much about our evolution. Just basic and general stuff…”

“... So you’re like this big?” Asked Lance as he made a gesture with his hands. It was ridiculously big.

“No… That’s… That just looks painful. More like…” He moved Lance’s hands so they were much closer together. “But with knots it’s more like this.” He moved Lance’s hands a little further apart. Lance looked surprised, but he seemed kind of… impressed? Maybe? He had no idea. “Yeah… that’s kind of-”

“How long do you stay knotted for?”

“Oh um… First knot, anywhere between 30 doboshes and a varga. Second knot… up to three varga…” Yurak felt so embarrassed talking about basic Galra anatomy in front of Lance. This was just basic stuff one would learn as a kit… At least Lance didn’t seem interested in learning about intersex Galra. That would have been a whole new can of worms he didn’t want to open...

“So it’s definitely gonna be an all night thing…” Muttered Lance. He had a thoughtful look on his face and it kind of made Yurak worry. He started flicking his claws against the pads on his fingers. Was that a bad thing? Being able to have sex for vargas? Would an Altean hate it? Maybe? But they seemed to be more promiscuous than Galra, so it might be a good thing? He didn’t know.

“Y-yeah… Is tha-?”

“Sounds like fun.”

“What? Really?”

Lance nodded. “Yep. If I’m honest Alteans might love sex, but there is no way we can mess around with someone for anywhere close to three vargas.”

“Oh. Okay.” Yurak was a little concerned about Lance’s well being now. He didn’t want to accidentally hurt him because Galra had sex for longer periods of time than Alteans. Maybe he should talk to Shiro about this? He was the only Galra he knew that had sex with an Altean… That and Lotor, but Yurak was pretty damn sure that Allura was all female and wasn’t intersex.

“So, what else do you want to know?” Asked Lance. “Want to know anything else about Alteans?”

“Um… h-how quickly do you heal from superficial wounds?” Asked Yurak.

Lance shrugged. “Depends on how deep the cut it, but something small like a paper cut takes a few quintants. If it’s really deep it would me a movement, or even a phoeb. Why?”

Yurak looked down at his claws. “...We um… I’ve heard that scratching isn’t uncommon during sex…”

“And you’re worried you’ll claw me?”

Yurak nodded.

“Aw, that’s sweet.” Said Lance. He smiled kindly at him. “Yurak, I’m sure it will be fine… and if your claws do get a little troublesome, there’s always bondage.”

“Bondage?”

“... Oh honey, you’re in for a surprise.” Said Lance with a wicked grin. “I’m sure you’ll like it when we eventually get to it.”

Yurak could feel his fur puffing up. “O-Okay.”

***

Shiro sat around in his den. He was trying to read a book that Yurak had given him for New Deca-Phoebe's eve. It was kind of a dry read, but Yurak meant well. It was some kind of historical fiction. He was pretty sure Yurak had no idea what to get him and just got advice from the person at the bookstore.

There was a knock at his door and Shiro went to answer it. Probably a neighbor asking to borrow something or one of the guards from the castle was in the neighborhood and was just dropping by to say hi. As soon as Shiro opened the door a heavy weight flung themselves into his chest.

Shiro took a step back and looked down. Hugging him, was an Altean. “A-Adam?!”

The Altean smiled and looked up at him. “Hey.”

“What are you doing here? How?!”

“Well Alfor and Zarkon have been talking about quickly opening some trade routes, mostly for Allura’s sake. Just so she could slowly get used to Galra quizine.” Said Adam. “I know some people that know people, so I was able to get on the spice ship. I need to leave in a movement though, or I could get in trouble…”

Shiro grinned and hugged him. He couldn’t help but let out a pleased rumble from deep within his chest. Adam was back in his arms. He didn’t care if it was for one movement or one quintant. The point was, Adam was there.

“Are you purring?”

“... Yes.” Shiro brought Adam inside and went to make him some tea while the Altean made himself at home. “So how long have you known about this trade thing behind opened up?”

Adam chuckled a little and sat on the couch. “Well, a few quintants… I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well you definitely did that.” Shiro hummed a little as he swished his tail around. He took the tea over to Adam and sat by him. “Do you want to stay here or do you have a place to go?”

“I can go back to the ship if that’s okay.”

“You can stay here.” Said Shiro quickly. “I um… I’d really like you to stay here… My den is big enough for the two of us…”

Adam smiled at him and kissed his cheek. “It’s fine. If you want me here then I’m going to stay here.”

Shiro smiled and nuzzled the top of his head. “I want you to stay here. I really love you Adam... We really messed up courting though, huh?”

“Yeah. We have… But fuck it. Who needs courting rituals and stuff? Too damn formal.” Muttered Adam. “I preferred skipping straight to the fucking anyway. Cut the bullshit. I make physical connections before I make emotional ones.”

“Oh… Well, we’ve kind of been courting each other over letters.” Said Shiro quietly as his ears drooped a little. “I thought we have an emotional connection…”

Adam looked a little surprised. “What? Oh, no, I just meant courting practices in general are kind of dumb.” Said Adam quickly. “I… I’m not saying things right… I like you Shiro. I really do. I love you.”

Shiro smiled softly at him and gently pulled Adam onto his lap. “I know. I love you too… I forgot how small you are compared to me.”

Adam huffed and crossed his arms. “It’s not my fault that you Galra are giants.”

That made Shiro laugh and he cuddled Adam some more. Adam seemed to be accepting of this and leaned into his chest. That made Shiro purr some more. “Want me to show you some Galra cooking?”

“That sounds like fun.”


	19. Kiss kiss

Things had gotten slightly better between himself and Yurak after their little talk. Well, at least that’s what Lance thought. Communication is key in any relationship. At least that’s what his mama used to tell him. So he was going to do what he could to do more communicating with Yurak. They had started to fall into a routine; they would wake up and Yurak would scent him, they would eat breakfast, spend time together, head off to do their own thing for a while, and then they would get together and talk about their day.

It was nice. Lance was enjoying his time with Yurak, though he did think things were going kind of slow. Then again Yurak probably thought that things were moving kind of fast. The Galra did seem to get a little uncomfortable when Lance got a little too physical with him.

Though Lance wanted to try and break through the awkward hand holding, and light hand touching. Today, Lance was gonna kiss him. However, there was one thing Lance did not count on...

“What’s kissing?” Asked Yurak. Kissing wasn’t part of Galra culture.

“Oh come on, you know what kissing is.” Said Lance. “Lotor and Allura kissed at their wedding. You saw it. They pressed their lips together. Kissing.” He didn’t think he would have to explain what kissing was over dinner to an adult.

“They didn’t kiss.”

“What?”

“They didn’t kiss.” Said Yurak. “Galra have two smaller scent glands here and here.” He pointed to two spots on either side of the corner of his mouth. “That’s how mates scent each other. And how parents scent their newborn kits. It’s a much more loving and familial way of doing so rather than rubbing your wrist on someone..”

“... How many more scent glands do you have?!”

“Just the ones on my wrist and the ones on my face.” Said Yurak. “So… What is kissing?”

“It’s where you press your lips together against someone else’s lips.” Said Lance. “You do that with people you like romantically, like mates and what not… And when in private there’s a lot more movement and you know, you can slip your tongue into the other’s mouth and stuff.”

Yurak looked slightly grossed out to hear that. “That sounds like an easy way to transmit germs.”

Lance shrugged. “It’s still nice… Is kissing too intimate for you?”

“... Just let me think about it for a bit.” Said Yurak quietly. 

That probably meant that Yurak didn’t want to do it. Kind of disappointing, but it wasn’t like Lance was going to push Yurak into it. He had no idea how he was going to change Yurak’s mind or if he even could. Lance picked at his food a little bit more before he was done eating and retired to Yurak’s room.

It was nice sleeping next to Yurak. He was so soft and fluffy. It was nice to just nuzzle into his chest fur. Yurak seemed to like it too because Lance could hear him pur. It was so cute. He wanted to nuzzle that fur some more… Kind of half hoped that little bit of nuzzling would lead to a little something more with Yurak, but it never did.

A little while later Yurak came in and crawled into bed next to him. Lance hummed a little and continued to look through his datapad. He just looked through it and read through a child’s guide to speak Galra.

“... Lance?”

“Hmm?”

Yurak moved a little closer to him and gently nudged him. “Lance… Can you look at me?”

Lance put his datapad down and looked at Yurak. “Yeah?”

“...” Yurak quickly leaned forward and pressed his lips against Lance’s. It wasn’t much of a kiss, but considering how Lance described it, it was pretty close. When Yurak pulled back he buried his face into his pillow and mumbled to himself for a few ticks while his ears were pressed firmly against his head.

Lance chuckled and smiled at him. “Did you just kiss me?”

“... Maybe…” Muttered Yurak. “I didn’t kiss you right, did I?”

“Hmm, kind of. Want me to give you a little lesson? Help you improve your kissing techniques” Asked Lance. “You can do that thing where you scent me with the scent glands on your mouth?”

“But that’s so-”

“Intimate? Yeah, I know.” Lance hummed and ran his fingers through Yurak’s hair. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to… Kiss on the cheek?”

“What?”

“This.” Lance leaned over and kissed Yurak on the cheek. He felt Yurak’s fur puff up a little under his lips. He was pretty sure this was some kind of Galra way of blushing. It was adorable. “There. Kiss on the cheek.”

“...” Yurak quickly turned his head and quickly kissed his cheek back.

Lance smiled. “Does that make you feel a little better? Still intimate but a little less intimate?”

Yurak nodded. “Yeah. Good compromise…” He quickly kissed Lance’s cheek again and smiled slightly. “We don’t do this kind of stuff here.”

“I can tell.” Lance smiled and cuddled him and sighed against his chest. He was very soft and there was something comforting about getting held in his arms. He liked it a lot. He felt safe. Lance sighed contently and felt Yurak starting to nuzzle the top of his head. It made him smile and he drifted off to sleep.

***

Allura was relieved that most Galra seemed to treat her with respect and rather fairly. Lotor had told her that Galra might not take to her since she was Altean, and the war… But thankfully no one seemed to be angry at her or dislike her in the slightest. No one seemed to expect too much from her, which both royals thought was a good thing. At least for the moment.

They would let most of them just think that Allura is nothing more than some pretty thing from another planet. A symbol of peace and what not. They didn’t think she was anything more than a pretty decoration. A flower. An ornament. An object. They were going to be one hell of a shock when Lotor announced that they were going to rule equally. It was just important to get the majority of Galra on her side first.

At the moment they were at some Lord’s house. Lord Eurgwar’s manor home. Not that it really mattered. Allura was just very tired from constantly moving. She had retired to her bedchamber with Romelle. The two Altean women were having a good time just relaxing.

“May I speak my mind, my queen?” Asked Romelle.

“Of course.” Said Allura. “And when we are alone you may address me as just Allura. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that.”

Romelle shrugged and made herself comfortable on the bed. “Well that’s the first time you’ve told me to do so off world. Anyway, you think Lance is dead yet?”

“And why would he be dead?”

“You think Lance can resist being a little shit?”

“... Fair point… But no one has mentioned that Lance has been murdered, so…”

“Still time to fuck up before we leave.” Warned Romelle. “Do you think he will start another war by doing something stupid?”

“He can’t be doing any worse than us.” Allura sighed and looked for her nightclothes. “Would you mind helping me with this corset?”

“Of course.” Romelle stood up and helped unlace the restricting undergarment. “So… Now that you’re queen of the Galra, are you going to stop wearing this?”

Allura sighed in relief when she could breathe properly again. “By the gods, yes. The only word I have heard about anything close to a corset was those back brace things that the… I want to say Baroness?” 

“The Baronesse of Karatara?”

“Yes. Exactly.” Allura put her hands on her hips and quickly stretched. Her back cracked and popped several times, making both women cringe. “And that was in reference to medical treatment for her son.”

“From what I have seen, the Galra appreciates practicality and functionality over aesthetic and design.” Said Romelle. She carefully hung Allura’s dress up on a hanger and went to get her brush. “Do you want me to do your hair?”

“Yes please. But you get changed into your nightwear first.”

Romelle nodded and as she changed, Allura took a seat in front of the vanity. She glanced over at her datapad and wondered if she should message Lance to at least ask how he was going. She knew that dealing with Galra could be rather difficult. She and Lotor had their own set of problems during their first night together. Hell, they didn’t even consummate their marriage on the night of their wedding. Then again, the two of them were too drunk and tired to actually do anything past groping each other a little before they passed out from exhaustion.

And even then when they did get around to actually consummating the marriage, it was mostly just awkwardly touching and trying to figure out how to do things so neither of them would get hurt. Either way the two of them were still rather sore the next day and still had a long way to go when it came to make sex more pleasureable for both of them. Allura was 90% sure they needed more foreplay, and 10% sure they needed more lube. She could only imagine the trouble Lance and Yurak might be going through at the moment.

Romelle walked up behind her and happily started to remove Allura’s braids and brushed her snow white hair. “I don’t know how you keep your hair so perfect…”

Allura chuckled. “Mostly barconar oil.”

“... So that’s the secret.”

“Only if you have wavy, curly hair like mine.” She warned. “Your hair is a lot straighter than mine. You will need something else.”

“Eh, true… Speaking of hair, should we try doing your hair in a more… traditional Galra style?” Asked Romelle. “I saw some of the women wearing their hair in braids?”

Allura thought about it for a moment. “Investigate that matter tomorrow. I’ll talk to some of the servants here and see if they can give me some pointers.”

“Sounds good to me.”

The door to the bedchambers opened up and Lotor walked in. He smiled softly at the women and shrugged off his jacket. “Lord Eurgwar seems to have nothing better to do then complain that taxes have been capped. If he keeps this up I might have to request that my father relinquish him of his title and lands.”

“So that’s why you were gone for so long.” Said Allura. “Well, we are just getting ready for bed… Also wondering if Lance is still alive.”

Lotor shrugged and started to undress. “Well I haven’t gotten any frantic texts from Yurak begging me to cover up Lance’s murder, so he is fine at the moment.”

Romelle rolled her eyes and put Allura’s hair in a loose braid for the night. “You say that now, but when we go and visit the Duke, he’s probably going to have Lance locked up in a dungeon or something.”

“He wouldn’t do that.” Said Lotor calmly. “Yurak does not have a dungeon… Though I do think he technically has, or at least had a torture room...”

“... Lovely.” Romelle put the brush down and yawned. “Well, I’m off to bed. Let me know if you two need anything… Maybe we could all sleep in tomorrow?”

“We shall see.” Said Allura. “Goodnight Romelle.”

“Goodnight Allura.” Said Romelle. She did a little curtsy towards her before she did the same to Lotor. “Goodnight Lotor. I shall see you both in the morning.”

Once she left, Allura got into bed and Lotor continued to get changed. “Romelle is a strange one… Still pleasant, but kind of odd.”

“Yes, but she is my friend… How long until we pay Duke Yurak a visit? I want to see how Lance is fairing.”

“Close to a phoeb if everything runs on schedule.” Said Lotor as he changed into his night clothes and slipped into bed next to her. “If things are running ahead of schedule that half a phoeb.”

Allura sighed and cuddled up to her husband’s side. “The sooner the better. I miss him. Lance might be a fool, but he is one of my closest friends. I would hate to see something bad happening to him…”

“Do you not trust Yurak?” Questioned Lotor.

“No, I trust your cousin.” Reassured Allura. “I just don’t trust Lance not to do something stupid…”

“Fair enough… But I believe everything will be fine.” He held her close and brushed a loose strand from her face. “Lets talk of this later my love. It’s time to sleep.” Allura hummed in agreement and the two of them fell asleep peacefully in each other’s arms.


	20. Double knots

Lance almost regretted teaching Yurak about kisses. Everyday when Lance woke up Yurak would quickly kiss him. Mostly on the cheek, but it had quickly progressed to actually kissing each other on the lips. He knew that it was meant to be a scenting thing, but Lance was still enjoying it.

What he wasn’t enjoying, was that Yurak had fangs. His fangs tended to bump up against, and catch his lips. It hurt a little, and he felt that it was made worse because Yurak pulled back a bit too quickly. But if that was the worst, then Lance didn’t really mind.

Something that Lance didn’t really expect to come from Yurak scenting him, was that the servants in Yurak’s house kept giving him odd looks. Some of amusement, some of mild confusion, and sometimes disgust. The disgust hurt the most. He knew not all Galra would like him being around, but maybe they were horrified by the fact that Yurak was courting him?

It made him wonder about what his family would think about his relationship with Yurak. Some of them would probably be horrified with him. The Galra had been their enemy for so long… Lance didn’t know what to think about that. They weren’t enemies anymore, and he knew that Yurak was taking their courting seriously so he was too.

He thought about this a lot as he looked out the window. As he did so, a maid came over to him with a tea try. “Would you like something to drink?” She asked.

Lance smiled and nodded. “Yes please. Thank you.” 

She happily put the tray in front of him and smiled. “Is there anything else I can do for you? Something to eat? Some literature?”

Lance thought for a moment. “Um… Okay, this is going to sound weird but I want to know what you guys think of Alteans… Like, I know our species have been kind of…”

“Is this about your courting with the Duke?” She asked.

Lance nodded. “Yeah, I’m taking this courting seriously… But um, do you guys think poorly about Alteans and Galra being together?”

She shrugged. “I honestly have no strong feeling one way or the other. Love is love, right? Some of the older Galra might not like it because they are a lot more stubborn, but hey, these things happen… They might be a little more unhappy about how the Duke is royalty and you’re… You’re a jester. It might be a class thing?”

“It might be…” Muttered Lance. He sighed loudly and leaned back in his chair. “I… I just worry about these things, you know? Like, I do like Yurak and I do enjoy courting him, but yeah… he does have a high status among Galra… So I… I’m not too sure how the political system works here, so, you know…”

The maid nodded and hummed a little to themselves as they thought it over. “Well, I think you’re fine. The Duke really likes you, and if anyone wishes to say anything against you he will fight them off. So don’t worry about it. Just do what comes naturally. While courting is the way we do things here, it isn’t the only way. Just do what comes naturally. Okay?” 

Lance was a little surprised to hear her say that, but nodded. “Okay. Thank you for the advice.”

“No problem.” She gave him a little bow and happily headed out of the room.

Lance drank some tea and thought over what she had said. They were trying to find a balance between courting and doing what comes naturally anyway… Maybe he could try and push just a little bit more? Nothing too extreme just… He was touch starved and wanted more… Fuck it, he was going to get some more.

***

Shiro kept muttering apologies to Adam as he carefully pressed a healing plaster onto his back. Things had gotten a little… spicy in the bedroom the previous evening. It was fun while it lasted, but Shiro did end up scratching Adam’s back, again.

“I am going to pull out your damn claws.” Grumbled Adam.

“Sorry…”

“Tie your hands behind your back.” He muttered.

“... I wouldn’t mind getting tied up.”

“Good. I’m going to muzzle you too.”

“Kinky.” Shiro’s datapad started to ding. It was from Yurak. “One second.” He quickly answered the call. “Hello?”

 _“Hey, can we talk for a bit?”_ Asked Yurak. He seemed a little nervous.

Shiro looked over at Adam who made a gesture that he would keep his mouth shut. “Sure. Go ahead. What’s on your mind?”

Yurak sighed. _“Well, it’s Lance… Things are going well. Like, really well. He’s respecting my boundaries and all that stuff, but um…”_

“Is he pushing you too much?” Asked Shiro.

Yurak quickly shook his head. _“No. He isn’t pushing me. He’s letting me scent him everyday by um… using the scent glands on our face.”_

“Oh?” Shiro was surprised to hear that. But was very happy with how things were moving with Lance and Yurak’s relationship. They seemed like a nice fit for each other. They seemed to balance each other out. Which was good. Yurak needed someone to help mellow him out. The poor Duke was a little high strung. 

_“Yeah… So here is my problem…”_ Muttered Yurak. _“I kind of want to move things along a little more. Like, speed them up, but I set a slow pace… I was just kind of nervous before since I haven’t really been in any relationship like this before… How did you speed things up with Adam?”_

“Well, you see-”

“He bent me over a table and ate me out.” Said Adam. Shiro shot him a dirty look while Yurak let out a horrified noise. Obviously embarrassed that Adam had overheard him talking about his relationship troubles. “What? It’s true.” Adam grabbed the datapad and sat in Shiro’s lap. “Alright, so you two are still courting and stuff right?”

 _“Y-yes.”_ Squeaked Yurak. _“Why are you covered in bandages?”_

“Galra claws fucking suck.” Grumbled Adam. “Be really careful. Anyway, if you want my advice, life is too short for courting. Fuck courting. Some of the stuff is nice, but don’t follow it to the letter. That is just bullshit and annoying. Just do what comes naturally. You’re not going to feel more confident because you two danced around some random flowerpole with reptilian skins around your dicks.”

_“We don’t do-”_

“I know you don’t do that, but you get my point.” Said Adam calmly. “Courting is good, but it’s very arbitrary. If you two love each other then you can ignore the courting and get to the fun stuff. Like me and Shiro did.” He leaned up and kissed Shiro’s chin. It made Shiro purr a little. Altean kisses were so sweet and pure. They had no need to kiss since they had no scent glands, but they did it anyway.

 _“I see…”_ Muttered Yurak. He still seemed a little conflicted. _“So, Lance won’t get mad at me for wanting to speed things up a little more?”_

“If anything he’ll be very happy.” Said Adam with a grin. “Altean’s would have normally gone all the way a few times already. I’m actually very surprised that Lance has lasted this long… He must really, really like you. Normally if things go too slow for an Altean, we just move on. He really loves you.”

Yurak’s fur puffed up a little and he smiled. _“Yeah, he really does… Thank you for the advice. I’ll um… Let you two get back to whatever you’re doing… Bye.”_ Yurak quickly ended the call and Adam put Shiro’s datapad back in the charging port.

“There. Advice given.” Said Adam. He got off of Shiro’s lap and lifted one of his legs, showing off the scratch marks on the inner and back of his thigh. “Bandage it up purple boy.”

“Yes sir.” Said Shiro in a joking manner as he happily bandaged him up.

“Good boy.” Muttered Adam. “Next time I’m topping.”

Shiro’s tail swished slightly in excitement. Altean’s were so small compared to Galra. He’d love to see how Adam would subdue him and get him to submit to him. He loved his feisty little Altean.

“Of course.”

***

That evening when they went to bed and Yurak kissed him to scent him, Lance wrapped his arms around his lover’s neck and held him close so he couldn’t quickly pull away. Much to his surprise, Yurak purred and pushed himself a little closer to Lance and Lance was positively melting at the attention.

When they pulled away, Lance licked his lips and looked up at Yurak. His ears were twitching slightly as he looked down at him. It made Lance grin. “Are you trying to hold yourself back?”

“M-maybe a little…” Admitted Yurak. “You’re… You’re very seductive…”

“Speak for yourself.” Said Lance as he ran his hand down Yurak’s chest. It was so soft. “I want to go further… Please…”

“I… I want to too, but… Courting…”

“Courting is just some concept that we made up…” Said Lance quietly. “We can keep going. I know you want to take things slowly, but I really think we can just go with the flow and have fun. Right? It doesn’t have to be serious. We can just have a bit of fun touching each other. We don’t have to go all the way.”

Yurak seemed a little unsure, but he nodded. “Yeah. I want to touch you too… I’m just worried about going too far and maybe hurting you…”

“Why would you hurt me?”

“My claws.” Said Yurak. “I’m kind of worried that I will scratch you… Altean’s are kind of fragile… I’ve been talking to Shiro about it since Adam came here and-”

“Wait, Adam is here?”

Yurak nodded. “Yeah. I called Shiro up earlier and um… Adam was there… He was a lot more informative considering he is an Altean.”

Lance chuckled. “Of course he was.” He happily kissed Yurak again. “Tell you what, if I tell you to stop, then you stop. Okay? And I’ll do the same for you. Sound good to you?”

Yurak seemed surprised for a moment before he smiled adoringly down at him and lightly nuzzled his neck. “Yeah. Sounds good to me.” Yurak’s hands quickly found Lance’s chest and hips. It felt so nice to have his hands on his body. Yurak was a lot larger than him and well, at this rate Lance was pretty sure he had some kind of size kink… Maybe it was more of an Altean thing?

The Altran ran his hand down the Galra’s chest, gently placing his hand over his stomach. He felt Yurak’s stomach quiver a little. Lance suddenly had an idea. He very gently and carefully managed to maneuver themselves around so he was straddling Yurak’s hips. The Galra seemed a little curious as to what Lance was up to.

Lance smiled down at him. “Do you trust me?”

“Well, you’re the more experienced one here.” Said Yurak quietly. “... If I tell you to stop, you’ll stop, right?”

“Yep.” Said Lance happily. “Consent is very important for Alteans. Sure we do prod a little bit to test our boundaries with each other, but if our partner says no, then we stop. You feel me?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Yurak ran his hands over Lance’s thighs. He seemed a little hesitant still. It was kind of adorable.

Lance wriggled down until he felt a small bump against his backside. Yurak gripped Lance’s thighs a little tighter. “Still okay?”

“Yeah…”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Lance smiled and slowly started to move his hips in a small circular motion. Yurak let out a small surprised gasp. That made Lance grin and he added some more pressure. “What? Have you not touched yourself down here before?”

“I-I have…” Said Yurak in an almost defensive tone. “I just… Don’t do it that often… I guess Galra might not have the same sex drive as Alteans… Or maybe it’s just me.”

He shrugged. “Maybe… Wanna show me how you touch yourself?”

“W-what?”

“Well, it might be a little more comfortable for you to do it yourself.” Suggested Lance. “Plus if I watch you I’ll figure out what you like and be able to do it to you later.”

Yurak looked up at Lance and sighed heavily. “Should I just show you some pornography?”

“Pronography later. Masturbate now.” Said Lance as he shuffled back further until he slipped between Yurak’s legs. He got on his knees and did a little striptease for him. His sleep wear wasn’t much anyway. Just a slightly oversized shirt and his undergarments. He felt Yurak’s leg snake around Lance’s ankle and lightly squeezed.

It made Lance grin a little as he very, very slowly pulled down his undergarments. Yurak seemed to be watching him intently. Which Lance absolutely loved. Yeah, he was an attention whore that loved being the center of attention. It was one of the many reasons he liked being a jester. When he walked into the room everyone paid attention to him and only him.

When he pushed his undergarments off he looked up at Yurak and smiled. “Like what you see?”

Yurak nodded wordlessly and sat up. He gently touched over Lance’s stomach, thighs, and hips. He seemed a little confused by Lance’s anatomy, but wasn’t disgusted or repulsed. It seemed like he just didn’t know what to make of it.

“Huh…”

“Huh?”

“It’s different, but not that different…” Mused Yurak.

Lance chuckled and shook his head. “Yeah, this stuff kind of happens between species. Now show me what you look like.”

Yurak still seemed a little hesitant, but removed his pants and undergarments. Lance was a little surprised to see that Yurak was more like a hunting hound. It was sheathed, but because of his grinding earlier, he could see the tip of something red just poking out. He seemed embarrassed by this and put his hands over his face.

“Y-yeah…” He muttered quietly. “So um… Yeah… This is what I look like…”

“It’s a little different, but not so bad.” Said Lance. “Easy enough to work with if you want to keep going. Do you want to keep going?”

“... Yes.”

“... Do you want to touch me?”

“Yes…” He reached out to touch Lance, but still seemed hesitant to actually do so. Lance quickly took Yurak’s wrist and pressed his hand against his chest, lowering it a little to his stomach. “Oh… You’re so smooth.”

“And you’re fluffy.” Said Lance with a grin. “I like it. Do you like how I feel?”

Yurak nodded. “Yeah, I do.” He moved his hands across Lance’s skin. He gently rubbed his thumbs over the small dips and bumps that defined Lance’s physique. Yurak made a deep purring noise. He seemed very satisfied with Lance’s body. Just getting touching like this was one of the more wildly intimate things Lance had done with someone. He really loved this Galra.

Lance smiled and gently put his hands on Yurak’s chest, slowly moving them down his body while he moved closer to him. “If you want to see me touch myself, you gotta give me some lube. Do you have any kind of lubrication?”

“Y-yeah.” Yurak turned his head and reached over to grab a bottle of green gel out of their night stand and handed it over. “Here.”

Lance took it and dabbed a little bit of it on his wrist to see if he was allergic to it. No bumps or blisters. Seemed safe enough. He happily moved around so he was sitting in Yurak’s lap, and happily pressed his back up against Yurak’s stomach.

“W-what are you doing?” Asked the Galra.

Lance just chuckled and looked up at him and grinned. “Just watch me and enjoy yourself. I’ll be able to tell if you like what you see.” He happily made himself comfortable and squirted some lube onto his hands. With confidence, Lance happily spread his legs and started to stroke his cock while he started to finger himself.

He let his eyes flutter shut as he tilted his head back and shamelessly moaned. Lance instantly felt Yurak’s cock twitch in interest as his hands grabbed hold of his sides. The Galra let out a slight rumble as he leaned forward a little to get a better look at what Lance was doing.

If Lance said he was embarrassed by Yurak looking at him, then he would be lying. Lance was too much of an attention whore to care. He loved it when he had undivided attention on him. Especially when it was a lover, and Yurak. Just imagining what Yurak would do to him made Lance shudder. 

He managed to work a second finger into himself when his legs slipped slightly on the sheets. Yurak quickly caught his legs and wrapped his hands around his thighs. “Is-is this okay?” He asked in a horse voice.

Lance nodded slightly as he looked up at Yurak. That Galra’s eyes were already clouded with lust and he could tell he was struggling to keep his own hips still by the way he seemed to be nervously shifting and lightly grinding behind him.

“Y-yeah.” Panted Lance. “Just… hold my legs a little wider and higher up. Yeah?”

“Like this?” Yurak complied with Lance’s wishes. From this new angle it was a lot easier for Lance to finger himself and reach just deep enough to rub the tips of his fingers against his prostate.

“Fuck…” Moaned Lance. “Yeah, that’s so fucking good Yurak. Just like that…” Lance quickly worked a third and fourth finger into himself. He felt so close to reaching orgasim already. Just a little bit more.

“L-Lance…” Whimpered Yurak. “P-please I… I want to… I want to fuck you… Please…”

It had been a while Lance had made anyone desperate enough to beg for him. How could he possibly deny Yurak when he had been so good so far? Lance pulled Yurak down into a quick kiss and whispered breathlessly into his ear. “Wreck me.”

In an instant Lance had been flipped over and around. He was face down in the pillows while his hips were roughly pulled into the air by Yurak. Before Lance could make any snarky quip about getting manhandled he felt the tip of Yurak’s cock easily push past the well prepared ring of muscle. All words died on Lance’s tongue as he felt Yurak slowly sink deeper and deeper into his body. Galra’s certainly much longer and thicker than the average Altean. The only way Lance would normally be able to feel this full was if he used a toy.

“F-fuck!” He managed to choke out. “You just don’t stop, do you?”

He felt Yurak’s chest press against his back as he was finally completely pressed flush against Lance’s hips. He let out a deep, satisfied purr. “Don’t tell me you can’t take it after you’ve been trying to get into my pants since we first met.”

“N-not since then.” Gasped Lance as he squirmed under him. “Y-you were too uptight and I w-wanted to mess with you.”

“And now I get to mess with you.” Purred Yurak. He quickly pulled out before sinking back in. Yurak’s cock easily rubbed over Lance’s prostate. 

It felt amazing. He didn’t know if he was yelling words, or if he was just making noise. He was pretty sure it was just noise. After some particularly hard thrusts Lance felt something pressing up against his already strained hole. Yurak growled and thrust forward particularly hard. Lance cried out and came hard when he felt something much thicker than Yurak’s cock filling him. He felt boneless as he felt Yurak empty himself inside. 

But Yurak didn’t stop. He held Lance’s hips tighter and started to grind hard against him until Lance felt a much larger, thicker mass pressing up against him. With a deep, animalistic growl, Yurak pulled harder and Lance’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he felt Yurak’s second knot fill him. When he did, Yurak came again.

Yurak collapsed on top of him and the two stayed still, breathing heavily for a moment before Yurak rolled onto his back, taking Lance with him. Lance still felt completely boneless and was completely powerless to stop Yurak for doing whatever he wanted to.

“Right…” Panted Lance. “Double knots…”

“Yeah.”

“We’re stuck for a few vargas now, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Fun.” Lance gently pressed his hand down against his stomach and both groaned slightly. Lance tilted his head back to look up at Yurak. He looked so sexy after getting thoroughly fucked. It made him grin. “So This means we’re a thing now, right?”

Yurak hummed a little and nodded. “Yeah… Keith.”

“Hmm?”

“When we’re alone you can call me Keith.” Said Yurak.

“Huh?”

“... Remember what I said about Galra having a few different names?” Asked Yurak. “We have a secret name, that only our lovers are meant to know… My secret name is Keith… I want you to call me that.”

“...” Lance was too lazy to try and pull Yurak down to kiss him, so he just pulled his lover’s hand up to his face and gently kissed the back of his hand. “I’ll call you whatever you want me to, Keith.”

Saying that name seemed to have an immediate effect on Yurak. He wrapped his arms protectively around Lance and started purring so loudly that it made Lance’s whole body shake. It was cute and made Lance feel loved.


	21. Coming together

Lance clearly underestimated how clingy Yurak would become once they had mated. The whole knotting thing had been a hell of an ordeal for him and the second Lance was freed, Yurak decided to pick Lance up and take him to the bathroom to get them both clean. It was nice, but if one of Yurak’s hands wasn’t on him his tail was. It was strange, but if it made Yurak feel better then Lance would roll with it… That and Lance couldn’t actually walk around at the moment.

He leaned against Yurak’s chest and sighed loudly as Yurak rubbed a soapy sponge on Lance’s chest. “Man… We should like, plan ahead next time we fuck. I don’t think I can use my legs…”

“Sorry.” Said Yurak quietly. “I got a little carried away…”

“It’s fine. Just need to have a datapad close by to do some reading.” Said Lance. “Staying stuck on your dick is kind of hard. Especially when you suddenly decide you want to thrust into me a little more.”

Yurak’s fur puffed up. “It was an accident! I was readjusting myself slightly!”

Lance chuckled and reached up to pull his lover down. He quickly kissed him and grinned. “I know, Keith.”

Yurak’s fur seemed to puff up even more at the mention of his secret name. “You’re going to use that against me now, aren’t you?”

“Damn straight I am.”

Yurak’s ears flattened against his head and his tail flicked in annoyance. “You are mean.”

“Says the Galra that double stuffed me.”

“You were into it!”

“True. Still mean. My poor ass. Will I ever be able to cartwheel again?”

“... I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Keith, that was a rhetorical question.”

“Oh…” Yurak went about cleaning the rest of Lance.

Lance figured it would just be best to let the Galran do what he pleased. Though he did yelp in protest a few times when Yurak did try to move the sponge between his legs. It was kind of shocking how comfortable Yurak was now about touching his body. Still, Lance was sensitive damn it and needed to rest his poor ass.

“Hey, I need to clean you here too.” Said Yurak. “The bed is messy enough without you leaking any fluids onto the mattress too.”

“And who is to blame for that?”

“Why is this my fault?”

“Because you’re the one that stuck your dick in me.”

“And you came on the bed.” Pointed out Yurak. “So shut up and let me clean you.” Lance pouted and let Yurak finish helping him get clean, though he did whine about it some more because he was a stubborn little shit.

***

The next day Yurak was surprised that Lance was actually able to walk around on his own. He was more than ready to carry the Altean around, but apparently they were more resilient than he gave them credit for. When he tried to pick the Altean up, Lance flailed around until Yurak put him down.

“Altean’s heal faster than Galra.” Said Lance in a huffy tone. Which Yurak found adorable. He couldn’t help but cuddle Lance and nuzzle the top of his head. Did it mess up his hair? Yes. Did it scent Lance even more than he already was scented? Double yes. He wanted Lance to smell completely like him. Which was obviously impossible, but he knew it would make everyone else think twice about laying a hand on him for any reason. “And my hair is messed up. Thanks.”

“You’re grouchy. I can ask the cooks to make you something you want for breakfast. Anything you like.”

“... Those green and blue things you said were eggs.” Said Lance. “And the juicy orange and purple things.”

“Okay. Eggs, jarragar berries, yadara fruit?”

“Yes. Those.”

“Okay.” Yurak kissed his cheek and happily got himself ready for the day. “Do you want to eat in here today?”

“Breakfast in bed? Heck yeah!”

Yurak smiled and happily went to the kitchens to see if he could get the cooks to make Lance what he wanted for breakfast. On the way, one of the younger maids happily went over to him, all smiles.

“Duke Yurak!” She said in a cheerful voice. “Good morning! We received word a few ticks ago that Shiro shall be visiting mid morning, and so will Prince Lotor and Princess Allura.”

“... And they couldn’t have given us some actual warning?” Asked Yurak in shock. “Oh boy… Alright, since Lance is staying with me, please have someone move his things into my bedchambers.” Instructed Yurak. “Clean the room and get an extra room ready for Shiro. Is anyone else with my cousin?”

“I believe Allura’s personal maid?”

“Okay, three rooms need to be dusted and fresh linen in all of them.” Said Yurak. As he talked the maid got her datapad out and started to take notes, possibly sending his instructions out to everyone as well. “Have the gardeners make sure that the front lawn is tidy, have the cooks take an extra 300 gak out of the funds and let them buy whatever they want that is in season to cook and drink.”

“Of course.” Said the maid. “Is there anything else I can do?”

“Just general cleaning. You don’t need to go overboard… And anyone that pulls extra time today gets extra holiday time since Lotor just pulled this out of nowhere.”

The maid nodded and happily typed into their datapad. “Very good. Oh, and Shiro mentioned he would be bringing a guest? Has the captain finally found a partner?”

“...” Yurak sighed and nodded. “Yes… Let the cooks know they will need to make four Altean friendly meals.”

“Four?”

“Yes. Lance, the Princess, the Altean maid, and Shiro’s partner…”

The maid looked surprised. “Shiro’s partner is Altean? … Maybe I should consider looking for an Altean partner…”

Yurak chuckled a little and headed to the kitchen. The head cook was already writing out a list of things he wanted to get with the sudden pay increase. Yurak was pretty sure that they were also ordering a few extra treats if they had any gak left over. Not that he cared. It was never anything too crazy and the head cook usually bought treats for the kits, an extra barrel of alcohol of the adults, or a few extra strips of fatty barbar belly for everyone. They probably were ordering barbar belly for dinner that night.

He got one of the other cooks to quickly make Lance’s breakfast. They were nice enough to make Yurak some food too. Yurak was pleased and happily took their food back to his room. Lance was still messing around with his hair. It was pretty damn adorable.

“I’m back.” Said Yurak. “I have food.”

Lance grinned and happily sat on the bed. “Sweet! Give me that weird Galra food!”

Yurak rolled his eyes and sat next to him. “By the way, Shiro and Adam will be coming by today, along with Lotor, Allura, and Romelle.”

“Hey, even better! It’s been so long since I’ve seen them.”

Yurak smiled and happily flicked his tail. “I thought you would like that. It’ll be nice to see them… Just wish they would have given me more notice.”

***

Around the afternoon Shiro and Adam showed up. Yurak could tell instantly that the two of them were definitely lovers from the scent that lingered around them. Their scents were intermingling and fresh. Not quite Shiro and not quite Adam. He and Lance probably smelled the same to everyone else. At least the Altean’s couldn’t see their awkward side glances.

“Hey Yurak.” Greeted Shiro. “I see you and Lance are partners now?”

“Same with you and Adam.”

He laughed. “Yeah, pretty much. Where is Lance anyway?”

“Lance is moving his stuff around our room.” 

Adam chuckled. “Oh? Our room? How domestic. Are you going to get wed soon?”

Yurak’s fur puffed up. “Um… No? Not yet?”

“Hmmm, if you say so.” Adam smirked to himself and happily looked around the estate. “This place is lovely.”

“Thanks. Please come on in. My home is your home.” Said Yurak. “I have asked for a room to be set up for you if you wish to stay the night.”

“Nice. I’m going to go and bother Lance.” Said Adam. He walked into the house and started talking to one of the maids.

“Is it safe to leave him to his own devices?” Asked Yurak.

“... Depends on who you think is in danger.” Said Shiro. “Adam is… He is surprisingly vicious.”

“Should I have warned my staff?”

“Perhaps…”

“Fun…”

About a varga later, Lotor and Allura made their appearance. There was the usual fanfare and settling down. The Altean’s quickly escaped to one of the bedrooms while the Galra took up the sitting room.

Lotor was tired from touring around the planet for so long. He just wished to return to the capitol so he could go back to his duties and help Allura settle into hers. He went on about things he needed to do to ensure Altean’s could visit and or gain citizenship if they wished to live here. As of now joint citizenship was only allowed via marriage.

Shiro was talking about maybe taking less days at work. He still liked his job, but he was pretty sure Adam would stab him in the dick if he didn’t take time off to be with him. Altean’s needed a lot of physical affection. That was something that everyone agreed with. But they all loved their touch starved, needy, adorable, lovable Alteans.

***

The Altean’s had hidden away in Allura and Lotor’s room. Instantly they were all talking about all the strange things on this weird planet. “And it’s so slimy!” Whined Romelle. “Lotor said it was like fargnorri, but it had the texture of cragfling!”

Adam cringed. “Oh, that’s disgusting. Did you know they will sometimes groom themselves? The fluffy ones anyway. I saw Shiro hack up a hairball into his drink the other day. He just threw it away and kept drinking.”

“Oh gods, I hope Yurak doesn’t do that…” Muttered Lance.

“I’m just glad Lotor is a Galra that has skin and not fur…” Said Allura. “I don’t think I could handle seeing him grooming himself like a wimbleflicx.”

“I miss Altean food…” Whined Romelle.

“When we get back to the capitol we will figure something out.” Said Allura.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Said Adam. “I came here on a goods ship. Lots of Altean spices and ingredients straight to the capitol, along with some chefs. I think they are going to have a feast for you when you get to the castle with some altean dishes.”

Romelle was practically salivating. “If you’re joking I will stab you.”

“You’d have to catch me first bitch.”

As those two started to bicker, Allura turned her attention to Lance. “So Lance, what is your status with Yurak? Are you two still dancing around each other?”

“Oh no, we fucked.” Said Lance. “I can’t imagine how painful your first time with Lotor was. I think I almost fucking died when Yurak hit me with those double knots.”

Allura shook her head. “Now Lance, it’s not appropriate to talk about such things with the crowned Princess of Altea and Diabazzel… But holy shit I was pretty sure I saw the quintessence field.”

Lance nodded in agreement. “I was told about it, but I was not prepared.”

“Yep, but what’s more important is that you love him. You do love him, right?”

“Of course.” Said Lance. “Yurak is really sweet. He’s so awkward, and he cares about me. He makes me feel safe when he holds me… I don’t really feel like I have to make him laugh if I don’t have to… But that might be because I don’t get Galra humour yet…”

“Well I’m sure you will figure it out soon enough.”

“Yeah, hopefully.” Lance smiled as he thought of his silly, awkward, stubborn purple fluff ball. He loved him a lot. The next time they went to Altea he was going to show Yurak around properly. He’d take him over to his family too. His parents would probably flip out in a mix of surprise and mild horror. Galra were still pretty damn scary looking. His siblings would probably be shocked too and kind of wary around him, but everyone would warm up to Yurak once they see how loving and sweet he was with him.

Allura chuckled, pulling him out of his thoughts and smiled at him. “Well, it looks like my father has lost his fool to a Duke.”


End file.
